


Finding Happiness in the Unexpected

by EmisFritish



Series: Welcome to my Ordinary World [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Daddy!Oliver, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Kid Fic, Pregnancy, like almost all fluff, mommy!felicity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 11:36:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmisFritish/pseuds/EmisFritish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow Felicity and Oliver through the nine months it takes to expand their family.<br/>Or as I like to call it: Teeth-rotting fluffy pregnancy fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Happiness in the Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> This is set about two years after Finding Beauty in the Ordinary.
> 
> This fic is basically me getting through the break up on the show, by writing pure fluff (or as I like to think, Oliver and Felicity's future, because they are going to have lots of lots of babies damn it!).  
> Also, Stephen Amell is still ruining my life by being the perfect father, and [this tweet](https://twitter.com/StephenAmell/status/709220322776629251) inspired the whole fic!
> 
> So many thanks to adiwriting for betaing this fic for me, being more patient than anyone should be, and being an amazing friend throughout all of this :)

**_1st month:_ **

“Mama, when is Daddy come home?”

Felicity sighs from where she is sitting on the couch. She opens her eyes and finds Chloe standing in front of her and watching her with a determined look on her face. Chloe is three and a half years old now, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t Daddy’s little girl anymore. She hates when Oliver isn’t home with them, and she’s made sure to let Felicity know whenever she could, mainly by asking when her father was coming back home. Repeatedly.

“Chloe, baby. He’s not coming home yet, but he’ll be here very soon okay? Do you remember what Daddy said before he left?” Felicity asks, while she pulls Chloe into her lap so she can nestle into her arms.

“He say ‘Daddy will be back when I wake up Saturday’” Chloe says, reciting what Oliver had told her before he left for his business trip.

Oliver has been gone for almost a week now. He had needed to go out of town for mayoral duties, and his absence is starting to weigh on both Chloe and Felicity. Since he left, Chloe has been asking several times a day when he would come back. It helps that he has called every night to talk to her, but it is still hard for Chloe to understand why her father isn’t here to tuck her in at night and when she wakes up in the mornings, like he usually is.

“Yes, he did. And what day is today? Do you remember?” asks Felicity, hugging Chloe close to her and playing with a blond curl falling on her forehead.

“Saturday?” answers Chloe, hope ringing in her voice.

“No, it’s Friday. Which means, only one day left until Daddy comes home. Tomorrow, when you wake up, he’ll be here okay?”

“Okay… I miss Daddy.” Chloe says, hiding her face in Felicity’s neck.

“I know baby girl, I miss him, too.” Felicity answers, holding her tight.

This week had been hard on both them, and Felicity couldn’t wait for Oliver to be back this evening. Not only had Oliver been gone, but a group of teenagers had decided to pick the week he was absent to become Arrow Wannabes and run around town trying to catch bad guys, leaving a trail of bodies behind them. Thankfully, they hadn’t been particularly skilled or subtle, so Felicity, Digg, Roy and Thea had managed to catch them without Oliver’s help. Still, it had been pretty exhausting.

On top of that, Felicity’s body had chosen this week in particular to give up on her and she had been sicker than she had been in a while. The antibiotics she was taking allowed her to survive the week and manage the company, Team Arrow and Chloe at the same time, but it hadn’t been easy. Couple all of that with the fact that Felicity has just missed Oliver and… Needless to say, Felicity is very much looking forward to him coming home. She misses her husband.

“Let’s go and get dressed Chloe. I promise today is going to go by super quick, okay? You get to spend the day with Auntie Lyla and Sara, and then come home with Mommy tonight, and speak to Daddy before you go to bed. And tomorrow when you wake up, he’ll be here okay?” Felicity asks, getting up with Chloe in her arms and carrying her towards her bedroom.

Felicity gets herself and Chloe dressed, and then feeds her some breakfast before dropping her off at Lyla and John’s house so Lyla can watch her while Felicity is at work.

Since Lyla is 7 months pregnant and isn’t able to work anymore, she had volunteered to watch the kids during the day. Roy is usually the one to look after Sara and Chloe, seeing as he loves spending time with them and doesn’t have a stable day job. But Lyla had given the reign of Argus to one of her colleagues during the remaining months of her pregnancy, and she had offered to watch the girls, giving Roy more time to help out with Team Arrow business.

Felicity and Chloe arrive in front of the Diggle’s house, and as soon as a heavily pregnant Lyla opens the door, Chloe rushes past her towards where Sara is coloring in the back of the house.

“Mrs. Chloe Queen, come back here right now and say hello to your Auntie Lyla!” Felicity says, raising her voice slightly.

Chloe stops dead in her tracks, and turns back around, coming back towards where Lyla is still holding the door, laughing slightly.

“Hello Auntie Lyla! Can I go play with Sara?” Chloe asks, eyes full of hope.

“Hello Chloe, and of course you can sweetie.” Lyla says with a smile on her face.

Chloe turns towards Felicity and blows her a loud kiss with her hand.

“Goodbye Mama!” she says, making her way back towards where Sara is.

“Goodbye baby, have a good day!” Felicity says, laughing at her antics. Since the day Chloe was born, she has worshipped the ground her older cousin Sara walks on, and it always amuses Felicity and Oliver to see their opinionated and strong willed daughter turn into a pile of goo whenever Sara is around.

“How are you feeling Lyla?” Felicity asks, turning back towards where Lyla is still holding the door open.

“I’m good. The little one has been kicking like crazy lately, but other than that, I feel great.” Lyla said, while rubbing a hand over her swollen stomach.

“I’m glad. I’ve got to run, but thank you so much for doing this Lyla! Don’t hesitate to call if you need anything, and I’ll pick her up later in the day okay?” Felicity says, while making her way back towards her car.

“Sure, good luck today!”

\-------

After dropping Chloe off, Felicity rushes to work and tries to keep herself as busy as she can in hope of the time going by quicker.

With Team Arrow, both of their day jobs, and Chloe, Felicity and Oliver never manage to get a huge amount of alone time. Still, Felicity normally manages to see Oliver every day and she misses him. Even though they have been talking on the phone every night, it’s just not the same, and she just can’t wait to hold him again.

Felicity is in the middle of writing a very painful financial report when her phone rings, providing her with a great distraction. She rushes to lift the phone up and picks up with a smile on her face when she sees Oliver’s name flashing.

“Well hello husband of mine, how are you?” she says, smiling at the phone.

“Hi Honey, I’m okay. How are you? Are you feeling better?” Oliver asks, concern clear in his voice.

“I’m okay, I’m feeling a lot better. I’m mostly looking forward to you coming home now.” Felicity answers, sighing into the phone.

“I know, I miss you, too. Have you been taking your medication?”

“Yes, I have. Don’t worry about me. Just worry about coming home.” Felicity says, with a fond roll of her eyes at her husband’s fussing.

“That’s why I’m calling actually. I won’t be able to be back til around 10pm tonight, so I won’t be able to see Chloe before she goes to bed. I’ll just call around 6. Would that be okay? That way I can speak to her.”

“That’s fine Oliver, she’ll be happy to hear from you, and even happier to see you tomorrow. She misses you.”

“You have no idea how much I miss her too, and you.” Oliver says, the longing clear in his voice.

“Actually, I think I have some idea,” She says, thinking about Oliver and Chloe together. Chloe is definitely Daddy’s girl and she knows it kills Oliver to be far away from her for this long. “But I’ll see you tonight okay?”

“Okay, I love you. Take care of yourself,” Oliver answers,

“I will, thanks honey. Love you too!” she says, before hanging up the phone.

Felicity smiles softly at the words, before putting the phone on the desk and focusing back on the report in front of her. It’s going to be a long day, she thinks, before she shakes her head and starts cramming numbers again.

\-------

Later on in the evening, Felicity is relaxing in the living room, sipping from a glass of red wine while catching up on some of her shows that Oliver dislikes. She had managed to put Chloe to bed without too much trouble, seeing as she was exhausted from her day with Sara. Oliver had called at 6 like he told Felicity he would, and Chloe had been happy to talk to him.

Ten is in the middle of an emotional scene with Rose when Felicity hears keys in the door. She pauses the show, and turns her head towards the entrance to see Oliver make his way into the house. A huge smile blooms on her face when she sees him, and she instantly gets up off the couch to make her way towards him.

“Hi,” she says with a huge smile, before kissing him slowly.

She feels Oliver smile against her mouth, and his hands go around her waist to pull her towards him, as he continues to kiss her with passion.

He pulls back slightly to say hello to her, before he pushes back in to kiss her several times, unable to stop the smile on his face when Felicity wraps her arms around his neck.

“I’m so happy you’re back,” Felicity says, dropping her forehead against Oliver’s. “How was your journey back?” she asks, while she pulls back to unknot his tie and starts to unbutton his shirt.

“Long. We had a layover and my neighbor kept talking my ear off about his dog. I’m just really happy to…” he starts to answer, before he stops and smiles at Felicity, seemingly having finally noticed that she is undressing him.

When Oliver stops talking, Felicity lifts her face towards him and smiles flirtily towards him. She hasn’t seen him in more than a week and she needs him. Now.

“Are you tired?” she asks, as she continues to unbutton his shirt and caresses the newly discovered skin with her fingers.

“Yes, a little,” Oliver answers.

“Oh,” Felicity says in disappointment, taking her hands away from his shirt and looking at him.

Before she has the time to pull completely away, Oliver laughs and catches her hands back in his, putting them back on his chest.

“Hey, hey, I’m not that tired!” he teases her, before cupping her face with his hands and pulling her towards him to kiss her languidly.

Felicity smiles against his mouth before kissing him back, while she finishes unbuttoning his shirt and pulls it off from him.

“Good, now let me show you just how much I’ve missed you,” she flirts, pulling him by his tie towards the bedroom, which has Oliver laughing in delight.

Just as they reach the corridor, Oliver pulls back slightly and smiles down at Felicity. He cups her face and pecks her on the lips.

“Would you mind waiting for me in the bedroom while I check on Chloe? I just want to see her, even if she’s sleeping,” he says, caressing Felicity’s face.

Felicity feels warmth in her chest and she smiles lovingly at Oliver. The way Oliver loves his family is always so amazing to her, and seeing Oliver and Chloe together always makes her love him even more. If she’s honest with herself, it’s also quite the turn on.

“Of course,” she answers, pecking him on the lips. “Take your time, we have all night after all, and I intend to take full advantage of it,” she continues with a flirtatious smile.

She makes her way towards their bedroom and before entering the room, she turns around to see Oliver standing a little dazed in the middle of the corridor, with a soft smile on his lips. She smiles to herself, and makes her way in their bedroom to wait for him. She really is so happy he is back, and she can’t wait to show him how much.

\-------

The next morning, Felicity is sleeping in Oliver’s arms when she hears someone pushing the door open. Before they had fallen asleep the night before, they had made sure to put some clothes on and Oliver had opened the door, knowing Chloe would probably come into their bedroom if she woke up before them.

“Daddy, you said you would be there!” the little girl screams with a huge smile on her face when she notices Oliver sleeping in the bed, which has both Oliver and Felicity sitting up and smiling at where Chloe is running towards her father’s side.

Oliver reaches down and pulls Chloe onto the bed with them, sitting her down in his lap.

“Hi Princess, I missed you so much,” he says, kissing the top of Chloe’s head, before hugging her close as she nestles into his arms.

Felicity looks towards the both of them, and her heart melts at the loving smile gracing Oliver’s features. She looks down at Chloe, who is the spitting image of her father, happily nestled in his arms, and she feels like the luckiest person in the world. She can’t imagine having a better family than the two of them.

 

* * *

 

_**2nd month:** _

“OLIVER” Felicity shouts as soon as she enters their living room, glaring at the pair of shoes she almost tripped on just now.

“Felicity, are you ok?” says Oliver, who comes running from the kitchen.

“No, I’m not okay Oliver. Do you always have to leave your shoes in this exact same spot every day? How hard is it when you come back from work to just take off your shoes, and put them in the closet where shoes are SUPPOSED to be! I almost fell to my death because of these.” she says, going around the living room and trying to look for her phone before leaving for work.

This is just not her morning. First, Felicity had woken up late for work. She had been so tired lately, she hadn’t even heard her alarm clock. After that, she had taken a shower, only to realize that her towel wasn’t on the radiator and she’d had to dry herself with a wet towel. Now, to top all of this off, she’d tripped on the shoes which were in the middle of the living room, where Oliver left them every night. She was going to have to rush off if she didn’t want to be extremely late, and she hates that feeling!

“Oh god, I’m sorry Felicity. Did you hurt yourself?” Oliver asks, instantly making his way closer to her to check for injuries.

“I’m fine. But god, is it really that hard? I can’t believe I have to repeat the same thing every morning! One of these days, Chloe is going to fall on them and she could get seriously hurt, is that what you want?”

Felicity instantly feels a surge of guilt when she sees the hurt that crosses Oliver’s face, but she doesn’t take back what she said. She has to get to work, and she doesn’t have the time to soothe Oliver’s feelings right now.

“Okay Felicity, I know that I shouldn’t let my shoes all other the place, but you know I wouldn’t do anything to endanger Chloe…”

“I know, I know. But look, you take the shoes,” she says, picking up the pair of shoes and marching towards the closet, “and you put them away. It’s really not that hard!”

“Okay, I’ll pay more attention, calm down. What’s gotten into you? They are just shoes.” Oliver says, still trying to soothe her.

“Right now it’s just shoes. But then, it’s you not waking me up when I’m late for work. It’s my towel being wet because it wasn’t on the radiator. It’s so many things and I’m just fed up with it!” she says, getting in Oliver’s face.

Felicity knows she’s overreacting. Oliver is always so sweet and caring towards her, and she knows that she isn’t being fair. She’s just in a terrible mood and she can’t help but snap at him.

“Okay Felicity, that’s it,” he says, finally getting mad at her behavior. “I didn’t wake you up this morning because you’ve been so tired lately. I figured that you needed the sleep. And the towel wasn’t drying on the hanger because it’s where you left it yesterday, and I got in so late I didn’t have the time to pick it up! I’ve been trying to be patient. I figured that you would tell me what was bothering you, but I’m done. What is going on with you? You keep snapping at me for no reason whatsoever, and I’m tired of it!”

Felicity is taken aback for a few seconds and she just looks at Oliver in shock. Oliver very rarely loses his cool around her and Chloe. He’s usually the most patient man with them, and she knows she must have been seriously annoying him these last few days for him to finally lose it. However, she feels anger surge when he attacks her that way. She hates when Oliver bottles everything up, and then just snaps at her instead of just telling her when he’s upset in the first place.

“Oh yeah? You’re tired of it? Well you know what Oliver,” Felicity says, while reaching for her purse and looking around the room for her heels, “If I’m SO annoying, I’ll just let you breathe and get out of this house!”

She locates her pair of shoes and makes her way to pick them up, before storming out of the house. Just before closing the door, she sees Oliver’s baffled face behind her, but she just slams the door and makes her way to the car.

As soon as she’s sitting in the car, she lets out a loud sigh and drops her head against the steering wheel. The guilt about what just happened and her behavior towards Oliver hitting her. Tears well in her eyes, and she rubs them off from her cheeks, not wanting to ruin her makeup and show everyone at work that something is going on.

She doesn’t know what’s gotten into her. She feels so moody and every little thing Oliver does drives her crazy. And she knows Oliver is right, she has been snapping at him lately, she just can’t help it. She sighs again and resolves to just go to work, and figure out a way to make it up to Oliver later in the day.

\--------

“Okay honey, what’s gotten into you?”

Felicity is playing with the salad in her plate, thinking back on the fight this morning when a voice pulls her out of her reverie. Felicity’s looks up at her mother, and just smiles sadly at her.

“What do you mean? I’m fine,” she lies.

“First, you have Mr. Square Bear Face. I think that says it all. But on top of that, we’ve been here for 15 minutes, and you’ve barely eaten or said a word. So what’s going on baby?” Donna says, reaching her hand across the table to caress Felicity’s cheek.

“I’m okay, it’s just… I had a fight with Oliver. About something really stupid, and I’m just frustrated with myself,” Felicity answers, stabbing a piece of lettuce with her fork and bringing it to her mouth, chewing angrily.

“Oh no! What happened?”

“I’ve just been so irritable and tired lately, I keep snapping at him for no reason. I hate myself for it, but I don’t know why I’m that way or how to stop. It’s just so frustrating,” she says, feeling anger at herself rising in her chest.

“Oh, well… Could it be because you’re not…. Satisfied?” Donna asks seriously.

“Satisfied? What do you mean? Oliver is great, you know that, Mom. You love Oliver. You two text each other and everything!”

“No, I mean… Have you two been having enough sex? Because you know, a girl has needs, and that can make a person become VERY irritable, I know it does it for me, and…”

“Oh god, Mom. Stop!” Felicity says disgusted, cutting her off mid-sentence. “First, we are in public space.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of honey. Everyone has needs.” Donna says, before she stops talking when Felicity glares at her.

“And second,” Felicity says, ignoring her mother’s previous remark. “Oliver and my sex life is perfectly fine. If there is something we never need to worry about it is Oliver satisfying me. The man is so good with his… You know what?! That’s none of your business. Just… We are perfectly fine on that front, thank you very much!”

Felicity can feel her cheeks warming up, and she can only imagine how red she must be. One would think that after that many years knowing her, Felicity wouldn’t be as easily embarrassed by her mother, but she doesn’t think she’ll ever be over her mother casually dropping comments about her sex life. Talk about things she _never_ wanted to think about, her mother being grumpy when she doesn’t get enough is the first on the list.

“Well… I don’t know what it could be then,” Donna says, looking confused and worried.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. I’m probably just tired. It’ll pass. In the meantime, I’ll try to make more of an effort to be nicer to Oliver.”

“Oh, I have an idea for that!”, Donna says excitedly, “The other night, I did something to Quentin and I’m sure that Oliver would love it. You just have to…”

“MOTHER,” Felicity says scandalized and embarrassed, cutting her mother off before she can continue that horrific sentence. She really _doesn’t_ need a visual of what her mother and captain Lance get to in their private time.

\-------

Felicity groans in frustration, before banging her head against her desk. She’d thought that being in the lair and focusing on finding Brute Force, the latest bad guy who yet again made his way in Star City, would help her calm down, but all it has done so far is frustrate her further.

She’s been looking everywhere, and the man keeps disappearing on her. Every time she thinks she’s got him, he manages to evade her and she is getting seriously annoyed.

“Well, you seem to be in as great of a mood as Oliver,” Roy says, sitting next to her and watching her.

Felicity lifts her head up from where it was resting on the desk, and glares at him. She can see the sweat running from his forehead and seeping through his shirt. Oliver, John, Thea and him have been training while she tries to find Brute Force, but Roy must have stopped a while for a rest, because she can still hear Oliver, Thea and John going at it.

“Okay, don‘t look at me like that Blondie! God, if looks could kill...” Roy says, lifting his hands in the air. “Did you and Oliver get into a fight or something? He’s been in a piss poor mood since this morning, and he’s running us extra hard during practice. Plus, you look like you’re two seconds away from killing me, and… I’m just going to go away now. Just, please fix it. He’s driving us all crazy.” He says, before making his way back towards the training mat where the others are still fighting with bamboo sticks.

Felicity instantly feels the guilt grow in her. Oliver had been fine when she saw him earlier when Donna and Quentin had come to their house to watch Chloe for the night. He had been at home with Chloe when she had come home to put her to bed with him, and kiss her goodnight before they made their way to the lair, and he hadn’t said anything.

Diggle had called Oliver and he’d had to make his way to the lair before her, so they hadn’t gotten a chance to really talk, and she thought he was fine. She was wrong apparently.

She should have known, of course. Oliver hates when they fight as much as she does, and she knows that. She feels guilty that she’s the reason he’s been in such a poor mood all day, and she knows that he’s probably been beating himself up all day when she was the one that has been acting crazy lately.

“Okay, everyone, go home,” she says, getting up from her chair and making her way towards the training mat. Diggle, Thea and Roy all look at her with grateful looks on their faces, but Oliver frowns at her.

“We’re not done with training yet. Were you able to find anything?” he asks.

“No, you’ll be the first to know when I do,” she responds, trying to contain her frustration. She hates when Oliver asks that, because he knows by now that she will tell him whenever she does find something. It just reminds her that she’s failing. Still, she doesn’t want to get into another fight with him, so she just lets it go.

“And I need to talk to you,” she continues, which has Oliver nodding and turning to the others to say his goodbyes.

Diggle, Thea and Roy quickly make their way out, and Felicity watches them leave, seeing Thea mouthing ‘Fix it’ before making her way through the door.

Once all of them have left Felicity and Oliver alone in the lair, she looks back towards him and sees him looking at her calmly.

“Look Oliver…” she starts to say, before stopping, not knowing how to voice what she’s feeling. She drops her head down and puts her hands against her eyes when she feels tears well up in them. It makes her even more frustrated with herself. She doesn’t know why she’s so emotional lately, and they won’t be able to have this conversation if she can’t stop crying for two seconds.

She’s pulled out of her thoughts when she feels Oliver come closer to her and pull her into his arms. The guilt in her chest grows even more at how sweet he is being. She knows Oliver can’t stand to see her hurt or crying, and she hates that she’s probably worrying him now on top of annoying him this morning.

“I’m so sorry,” she says, hugging Oliver back with both of her arms around his waist, while one of his hands come up to caress her hair and the other one holds her tight. “I don’t know why I’ve been so moody lately, and I’m so sorry for being so short-tempered these last few days. You’ve done nothing wrong and I just keep jumping at your throat, and I’m just...”

“Hey, hey,” Oliver says, trying to soothe her. “It’s okay Felicity, I’m just worried about you.”

He pulls her towards her desk and sits her in her computer chair, before crouching down in front of her so they are at the same level.

“I know, and I’m sorry about that too. I’ve just been tired and moody lately, and I can’t seem to control it,” she says, looking into Oliver’s eyes and seeing nothing but worry. “But you’ve done nothing wrong and you don’t deserve me taking out my frustration on you. I promise I’ll make more efforts to be nicer.”

Oliver caresses her cheek and kisses her forehead, silently reassuring her that it’s fine, before he pulls back to look at her carefully, worry in his eyes.

“Do you think you might be coming down with something? You have been tired lately…”

“Probably,” Felicity agrees, before she cups his face into her hands. “I’m sure it’s nothing, you don’t have to worry about me. And I’m sorry again. You are a wonderful father and husband and I’m lucky to have you. I love you, and I’m sorry about being such a pain lately.”

She pushes forward and kisses Oliver tenderly on the lips, running one of her hands through his hair.

“It’s okay Felicity, and I love you, too. Do you think you should go and see a doctor?”

“No,” she says, smiling lovingly at him. “I’m sure it’s nothing, and a good night sleep in my husband’s arms will make it all better.”

Oliver smiles softly in answer and he pushes forward to kiss her again. After a few minutes, he gets up and lifts her up from the chair, before sitting down in it and placing her so she’s sitting sideways on his lap. Felicity turns towards him and kisses him softly, before she nestles into his arms.

She might be getting sick, but sitting here with Oliver’s arms around her, she already feels better. Tomorrow is another day, and she promises herself she’ll make more of an effort to appreciate Oliver and everything he does for her. 

 

* * *

 

_**3rd month:** _

Felicity paces back and forth in the bathroom, looking towards the sink every few steps. She glances at her watch, realizes that only 30 seconds have passed since she last looked, and groans in annoyance. How can 5 little minutes seem so long?

“Ok Felicity, this is useless,” she says, making her way out of the bathroom. “Just get out of here and do something productive for the next five minutes. You’re a smart woman, you can occupy yourself for five minutes. Of course, now you’re talking to yourself. Again. So you might not be as smart as you thought but…. God. Okay. Out of here.”

Felicity makes her way into the living room and she sighs when she sees the mess Chloe left before she and Oliver left for the day. Since her realization this morning, Felicity has been freaking out and she told Oliver that she wasn’t feeling so well and was taking a personal day.

Oliver, being the perfect husband he was, had instantly told her to go back to bed and said he would take care of everything this morning, including dropping Chloe off at Lyla’s house, which she was supposed to do today.

Felicity feels a little guilty when she thinks back at how Oliver had had to rush all morning to get himself and Chloe ready for the day for him to be on time at work, especially since she isn’t actually sick. But… She just needed some time to herself to figure this out.

She starts picking up the toys which are spread all over the living room, and then makes her way to the kitchen to wash the dishes laying around.

Once she is done, Felicity looks at her watch and lets out a huge breath when she realizes that 7 minutes have passed.

She slowly makes her way back to the bathroom, and locks the door behind her. She knows she is alone in the house and that it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but she doesn’t have the brain power to think rationally right now. All of her mind is fixated of the device which is innocently lounging on the bathroom sink. A device which could change her – their - entire lives. Again.

Felicity slowly approaches the sink, excited and dreading what she might see at the same time. When she reaches it, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. This will be okay. She can do this.

She slowly opens her eyes, picks up the test, and her breath catches when she sees the result.

Pregnant.

This one little word has just changed everything for her and Oliver, and a wave of joy and fear hit her at the same time.

She’s pregnant. In less than 9 months, she and Oliver are going to have another baby. Another human being they are responsible for, that will be half her and half Oliver. A little brother or a little sister for Chloe. She suddenly feels dizzy at the thought and she walks towards the toilet, sitting heavily on the lid.

How could this have happened? She’s on the pill, and she’s very meticulous with these sorts of things! Of course, she and Oliver had spoken when they first got married and they had both mentioned they wanted several children, not just one. Still, that was five years ago. And since Chloe was born three and a half years ago, neither of them had brought up the subject of having more children.

She knows she wants more, and she can already feel the love for this person she just found out about growing inside of her, but she never imagined getting pregnant without talking to Oliver first, and them both planning on when the best time would be. She never planned on it happening this way, a miraculous accident. And she could only hope Oliver would see it the same way.

Oh god, Oliver. How was she going to tell him?

Just as Felicity starts freaking out again about how she’s going to tell Oliver that she’s pregnant, she hears a knock on the front door. Before she has the time to come out of the bedroom, she hears Thea’s voice coming from the living room.

“Hey Felicity, where are you? Roy is driving me nuts right now, so I thought I would come and chill with you for a while. I cannot believe him sometimes. Do you know he had the nerves to tell me that…” Thea continues saying, before stopping suddenly when Felicity makes her way out of the bathroom.

“Are you okay Felicity? You’re kind of pale…” Thea says, making her way closer to her and looking at her with concern.

“Hi Thea,” answers Felicity, smiling towards the girl. “I’m fine, don’t worry. Just a little tired.”

Felicity makes her way towards the kitchen and goes straight towards the coffee maker, before stopping in her tracks suddenly. Right. She can’t have coffee anymore. Not for the next 8 to 7 months at least, from what she can tell from her calculations.

She backtracks and makes her way towards the kettle, settling for tea instead.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re acting a little strange…” says Thea, having followed her into the kitchen and resting against the counter while she watches Felicity fuss around in the kitchen.

“Why wouldn’t I be? This is just a normal day for me, nothing special. And even if there was something special to say, it’s not like I could tell you without telling Oliver first. But since there isn’t anything going on, I’m fine. We’re fine. Everything is fine, and I’m just going to stop talking in one, two, three….”

Felicity winces at her word vomit and turns around to see Thea looking at her with amusement painted on her face.

“It’s been a while since I’ve witnessed a Felicity babbling session, and you only babble that way when you’re nervous, and typically only around Oliver. I’ve kind of missed them. But okay, I’ll let it go, for now. So, wanna know what Roy had the nerve to tell me this morning? He… ”

“I’m pregnant,” Felicity says, cutting Thea off mid-sentence.

Thea eyes boggle out of her head, she stops talking immediatly, and looks at Felicity. A few seconds pass in silence, and Felicity instantly regrets telling Thea before speaking to Oliver.

“Frack. I really shouldn’t have told you that, I just… I needed to say it out loud I guess, for it to be real? And it just came out. Please forget I said anything,” she says, turning around to fetch mugs from the cupboard, before putting two of them down on the counter and focusing on pouring the boiling water into them.

“Felicity,” says Thea softly, having made her way closer to her. Felicity turns towards her and Thea looks at her with a small smile on her face, “You’re pregnant?”

Felicity puts down the kettle and turns towards Thea, looking at her with a matching smile on her face, “I’m pregnant.”

And it suddenly hits her again, as if saying the world out loud to someone else suddenly makes it more real. She’s pregnant. She and Oliver are going to have a second child.

Thea squeals in happiness and jumps on Felicity, hugging her close to her body.

“Oh my god, Felicity! This is so amazing! I’m going to be an aunt again! I’m so happy for you!” she says, still hugging Felicity before she instantly pushes back from her, a worried look on her face.

“Wait… you’re happy for you right?” she asks uncertainly.

“I guess. It’s just...” she starts to say before stopping, not knowing how to express her feelings.

Thea smiles towards Felicity and takes her hand in hers, pulling her towards the couch and completely forgetting the two mugs laying on the counter.

Once they are seated facing each other on the couch, Thea calmy looks at Felicity and just waits for her to put her thoughts in order.

“I am happy. Very happy in fact. It’s just… How could this have happened? I’m on the pill, and I just don’t know how it could have… It took a year for me to get pregnant with Chloe. Oliver and I had time to talk a lot about what we wanted and to make sure we both wanted her with all our hearts, and this just is all happening so fast…”

“Felicity, stop,” says Thea, softly but firmly. “Breathe, calm down, sweetie. I know you didn’t plan on this, and I can’t imagine how you’re feeling. But you’re happy about this right?”

She waits until Felicity nods, a small smile growing on her face before continuing, “Then this is good news. You should be overjoyed right now. Who cares how it happened? The important thing is it did happen, and now I get to be an aunt again. I get to see my brother and his amazing wife be kickass parents to two children instead of one!”

Felicity smiles at Thea’s enthusiasm, but she can’t help but worry about how Oliver will react to the news.

“How am I going to tell Oliver?” she asks, her voice shaking a bit at not being able to predict his reaction, “He didn’t sign up for this. We haven’t talked about having another child in years, and this is the worst time possible for it to happen. Chloe is only three years old, how are we going to deal with a baby and a toddler at the same time? And Oliver just got reelected for another term, and I just…”

“God Felicity,” Thea says with a fond and exasperated look, “For a genius, you can be so oblivious sometimes. If you think that Oliver isn’t going to be overjoyed when he hears the news, you are dead wrong. He loves you and Chloe more than anything in the world, and I know he’ll be so excited to get to know and love this new person. He’ll love them just as much as he loves the both of you.”

Felicity smiles a little, and thinks about how Oliver had reacted when she told him she was pregnant with Chloe. Oliver likes to tell her it was one of the best days of his life, and she can only hope today will become another one. She hesitantly puts a hand over her flat stomach and she sees a huge smile bloom on Thea’s face at the gesture. She looks up towards her, and she smiles back in answer. She already loves this little person inside of her, and she can’t wait to meet them.

“Okay. Now I’m going to call Oliver, and I’m going to tell him that he needs to come back home as soon as he can okay? And then, you can tell him the best news he’s had in a while and make him the happiest man on Earth again. And once you’re done, you can call me so I can gloat a bit and say ‘I told you so’.” Thea says, while she gets up from the couch.

Felicity laughs softly at Thea’s antics, and she gets up from the couch to hug her tight.

“I’m so happy for you,” says Thea, before she presses a kiss to Felicity’s cheek and makes her way towards the door.

“Thea,” calls Felicity, just before she reaches the door. When Thea turns towards her, Felicity looks at her and asks, “Why did you really come here today? Was it actually to rant about Roy?”

Thea looks at her and smiles softly, not saying anything.

“Oliver asked you to come and check on me didn’t he?” she asks, already knowing the answer. She had told Oliver she wasn’t feeling so good this morning, and she could imagine him worrying about her, but not wanting to anger her by checking up on her all of the time, which has happened before.

Thea’s smile grows on her face, and her eyes lit up with happiness. She nods and winks at Felicity as she makes her way out of the house, leaving Felicity with her thoughts.

How could she worry about this pregnancy when she has the best husband in the world? Oliver loves her and he is always so amazing with her and Chloe, she can’t imagine him being anything other than perfect with this new baby, too.

\------

A few hours later, Felicity is sitting on the couch and watching TV while daydreaming when she hears the keys turn in the lock.

“Felicity, are you okay?” he says as soon as he sees her, “Thea called and said I should come home a couple hours ago. She said you were okay but… I’m sorry it took so long, I was stuck in the meeting that I couldn’t get out of and...” Oliver rambles, while making his way towards her and sitting on the couch next to her.

“Oliver, I’m okay. Don’t worry about it. I hope you didn’t miss anything important at the office to rush back home” she says, caressing his cheek with the palm of her hand.

“Nothing is as important as you, you know that,” he says, catching her hand in his and kissing her fingers before laying it on his knee, where it’s resting on the couch.

Felicity smiles softly at his answer, and simply pecks him on the lips, not able to kiss him properly because of the smile that won’t leave her face.

“You know how we were talking about maybe changing the guest room into a computer room so I could help out from here some evenings instead of going to the lair?”

“Yeah…” says Oliver frowning, clearly having no idea where she is going with that thought.

“Well… I think maybe we’d be better off leaving it as it is. I mean, we’ll probably have to bring modifications to the room, but very different ones.” Felicity says with a smile on her face, observing Oliver closely.

His frown deepens, not understanding why she is bringing this subject up now and what she wants to do with the room.

“What do you mean? Did you get another idea instead?”

“Well, not exactly. It’s just, I think we’re going to need it. In about 9 months or so…” Felicity says, her eyes glued to Oliver’s face as to not miss his reaction.

She sees Oliver freeze at her words, and she smiles softly, waiting for him to react.

They stay silent for about a minute and Felicity sees tears welling in his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything and just stares at her.

“Oliver?” she asks softly, some of her previous worry making its way back, “Now would be a good time to say something honey.”

Oliver looks at her in shock and takes both of her hands in his.

“You’re pregnant?” he asks in a small and hopeful voice.

“I’m pregnant. And it would be great to know how you feel about it because I’m pretty excited, but I can’t be completely happy about it before I know that you’re happy too and I just…”

“Oh my god, I love you.” Says Oliver, before pressing forward and kissing her with passion.

The kiss doesn’t last long because neither of them is able to stop smiling long enough to kiss properly, and Felicity feels a weight lift from her shoulders. Oliver pulls back and looks at her with pure joy. Tears of happiness are running down his cheeks and he doesn’t seem to care about them at all and doesn’t bother wiping them away, too busy smiling and hugging Felicity.

“I love you too,” says Felicity, laughing at Oliver’s excitement when he pushes her forward until she is laying on the couch and he’s right on top of her, making sure not to put too much of his weight on her body.

“So, you’re happy about this? Because I know it wasn’t planned, and we haven’t spoken about this in a while, but…” Felicity says, caressing Oliver’s back before he cuts her off with a kiss.

“I am so, unbelievably happy Felicity. I don’t care that it wasn’t planned, this little person is half you and half me, will be a part of Chloe, and I already love them so much. I can’t wait to meet them and I can’t wait for them to meet their amazing mom,” Oliver says, kissing Felicity again before making his way down her body and pressing kisses all over her face, torso and eventually reaching her stomach.

Oliver lifts her shirt off enough to show her flat stomach, and starts pressing kisses all over it, making Felicity giggle.

After a few minutes, Oliver pushes back up and kisses Felicity on the lips again, before he lays back down and rests his head against Felicity’s stomach. Felicity puts her hands in his hair and caresses it while smiling softly at him.

“Hi baby, I’m your Daddy. And you’ve just made me and your Mommy the happiest people on Earth right now, we can’t wait to meet you.”

 

* * *

 

_**4th month:** _

‘ _I so didn’t miss this_ ’, Felicity thinks to herself while kneeling in front of the toilet, throwing up everything she has ingested since noon.

“Okay honey, I have water and I bought the ginger candy that you like. It helped when you were pregnant with Chloe, right? I’m sorry it took so long, I went as quickly as I could, but I’m here now,” Oliver says, sounding worried as he enters the bathroom and instantly sits next to her on the floor and caresses her back.

Felicity nods to show she understands what he is saying, but she doesn’t dare speak yet, afraid that the throwing up will start again. She waits a few minutes with both of her arms resting against the toilet seat, and her head bowed down in the toilet.

“You know, we should really think about ways to make this bathroom more comfortable with the amount of time I may spend in here in the next months. A couple cushions on the floor, maybe a TV over there…” Felicity says, lifting her head back up and looking at Oliver.

She sees the sorry smile Oliver sends her, and she smiles back when Oliver pushes himself closer to her and reaches out to dry away the tears that have run down her cheeks while she was being sick.

“It only lasted a couple months with Chloe right? Maybe it’ll stop soon…” Oliver says, and Felicity shoots him a bewildered look as if to say _‘Only a couple months, are you kidding?’_ which has Oliver backtracking.

“I know a couple months seems like forever right now, and I hate seeing you that way, but I love you and I’m so proud of you. Just think of the end result, and it’ll make it better” he says, trying to reassure Felicity.

“This kid better be perfect if they’re going to put me through that. At least with Chloe, morning sickness seemed to be actually contained to mornings! With this one, I feel like I’ve been stuck in the bathroom at all hours of the day,” she laments, dropping her forehead against Oliver’s shoulder.

“They will be,” he simply answers, pressing a kiss to her forehead before putting his arms around Felicity and hugging her close to his body.

Felicity sighs, but doesn’t say anything. She forgot how much she hated morning sickness. The nauseous feeling that hits her at all hours of the day, the bloated feeling and the hours spent in the bathroom. She’s just going to hope that this pregnancy kind of takes after her previous one and the morning sickness stops after she reaches the 16th week of her pregnancy.

“The others are going to arrive soon, do you feel up to doing this tonight? Or should I just send everyone home and we can take the night off?” Oliver says after a few minutes of silent hugging on the floor.

Felicity smiles, even though she knows Oliver can’t see it with her face hidden in his neck. She loves how supportive he is of her, and how it doesn’t even cross his mind to just send her home alone while him and the team work the streets. She knows that for Oliver, leaving her alone while she is sick isn’t even a possibility, even if it is only morning sickness. It kills him that he can’t really do anything to stop it, and she knows he won’t leave her side. He’ll try to help however he can.

“I think I’m better now. I should be okay,” she says, pulling away from Oliver’s chest.

He quickly stands back up and he reaches down with his hands to help her stand with him, squeezing her hands once before letting them go.

“I’d kiss you right now, but I won’t subject you to that since I just threw up,” she says, smiling teasingly at Oliver.

He laughs and leans forward to kiss her on the forehead instead, “And I love you for that.”

He reaches down and takes her hand, pulling her out of the bathroom and they make their way towards her desk in the lair.

“I think that maybe we should tell everyone soon,” Felicity says, looking towards Oliver. “We won’t really be able to hide it from the team with me throwing up at a moment’s notice, and I’m going to start to show in pretty soon anyway.”

“These are already bigger,” Oliver says with a teasing smile, before he bends down to press a kiss to each of Felicity’s breast through her shirt, showing his appreciation for their newfound size.

“I don’t think anyone but you pays that much attention to my breasts, Mister,” she answers while pushing him away gently and laughing, “At least, I hope they don’t.”

“They’d better not if they know what’s good for them,” he says possessively when he straightens back up and Felicity just rolls her eyes at his words.

“Anyway, it will be nice to share this with them,” he continues, with a soft smile and Felicity can’t help but smile back.

Since Oliver has learned about the pregnancy, it’s like he’s been on cloud 9 and nothing can reach him. Every time someone mentions the word ‘baby’ or she talks about the pregnancy, he gets this goofy smile on his face. She sometimes catches him staring at her with that exact smile, and she knows he’s thinking about the baby. She loves seeing him this happy, and will never get tired of a giddy Oliver.

Before she has the time to answer, they hear noises coming from the elevator and they both turn around to see Thea, Roy and Digg make their way towards them.

“You guys are here early,” Thea says with a quick hug for Felicity, and a shoulder bump to her brother.

Since Thea learned about the pregnancy, she’s been almost as happy as Oliver is. She keeps sending all sorts of links about baby clothes and toys Felicity’s way, and she’s been a lot more affectionate towards her, too.

“Is everything okay?” asks Diggle, looking curious.

Felicity turns towards Oliver and she sees that he is already looking at her as if to ask her what she wants to do. When she smiles at him in encouragement and smiles, Oliver turns back towards the team.

“We have something to tell you guys,” he says, and Felicity instantly sees a look of concern cross Roy and Diggle’s face, while a huge smile blooms on Thea’s.

“It’s nothing bad. Don’t worry. It’s just…. We’re going to have a baby,” he says, and both Diggle and Roy look at them in surprise.

“What?” asks Roy, as if he hadn’t understood the first time.

“I’m pregnant. We’re going to have a baby,” says Felicity, smiling when she sees the huge grin on Roy’s face and he makes his way to hug her.

“I’m so happy for you, Blondie! And that explains the mood swings you’ve been having lately,” he says, before shouting and pulling back when Felicity hits him in the shoulder and glares at him.

“I have _not_ been moody,” she says, and Roy simply laughs.

“Whatever you say,” he answers.

From the corner of her eye, Felicity sees Diggle hug Oliver and whisper something in his ear, and Oliver looking at him gratefully with a big smile on his face.

Diggle pulls back from Oliver and he makes his way towards Felicity, hugging her close and so tight that he lifts her up from the ground a little, and Felicity laughs in giddiness.

“You knew!” Roy says suddenly looking towards Thea, which has everyone turning towards him. “That’s why you’ve been researching all this baby stuff and cooing over baby clothes for the past two weeks. You knew and you didn’t tell me!”

Thea simply smiles in answer while the rest of them laugh softly.

“God, I thought you were dropping hints or something…” he says embarrassed.

“Wow, we are so not ready for that yet, keep dreaming babe,” says Thea, patting Roy on the back gently which has everyone laughing again. “But yes, I knew. I’m so happy for you two!” she continues, jumping on Felicity and Oliver, who’s made his way next to her, and hugging them both close to her body.

“How far along are you?” asks Diggle curiously, and Felicity can tell he’s surprised they hadn’t picked up on it earlier. Despite what she told Roy, she has been quite moody for a month or two. Add that to the constant throwing up that’s been happening for the last two weeks, and it’s not that far of a reach.

“We went to the doctors and he said about 13 weeks. So only six months before we can meet this little person!” she answers excitedly and she sees everyone else is excited at the prospect, too.

Roy seems to have a smile even bigger than the others on his face, and Felicity reminds herself that Roy hadn’t been able to be there for most of her pregnancy with Chloe or when she was born. He had been absent for most of those things and only got to see her very few times before she turned three years old. So it makes sense that he would be excited that he gets to be a part of it all now, and actually be present when the baby is born and see him or her grow up.

He’s excited to share this with their family, and Felicity is incredibly grateful once again that they had managed to sort this whole mess out and Roy could come home for good.

The sound of a computer beeping has everyone turning around to look at it. Felicity makes her way towards the desk, sitting in her chair and typing furiously.

“What’s up?” asks Oliver, while him and the others make their way closer to the desk and stand behind her chair looking at the screen.

“I ran a trace on our crazy red-head, green-eyed stalker guy, and I got a match. Looks like he’s in a night club down on 9th. Better hurry, if the last two victims are any indication, he’s not too patient,” she says, and turns around to look at them.

“Suit up,” says Oliver to the others, before he bends down to peck Felicity on the cheek and makes his way towards his suit himself.

\-------

Felicity looks down at all the people sitting around the table, and she swallows in nervousness. She has been dreading this moment for the past week, but Curtis had finally convinced her that she has to do this.

Since learning that she is pregnant, Curtis has been bugging her about telling the board members and the rest of the company before rumors start going around or they hear the news from the press. Which is why she is now standing in front of these people and preparing herself to tell them something that she is sure they won’t be too happy about. Curtis had told her that announcing it at the beginning of the board meeting would be the perfect opportunity, but looking at them now, she isn’t so certain it was such a good idea.

She stands up and takes a big gulp of air. She turns towards Curtis and sees him give her an encouraging nod and smile. She faces the board members again, and looks each one of them in the eyes.

“I have a quick announcement to make. I’m sorry for taking time out from the meeting, I know we have a lot of important matters to discuss, so I’ll make this brief,” she says, and she reads curiosity on most of the faces, and dread on some others. “I just wanted to let you know that I am pregnant and going to have a second child in about 6 months. The baby and I are perfectly healthy and it won’t take anything away from my work, but I thought it best to share the news with you before you heard it somewhere else.”

Felicity can feel Curtis’ eyes on her and she can imagine him saying, ‘Excuse me, _you_ thought it best?’ with an air of disbelief, but thankfully, he doesn’t say anything and keeps his thoughts to himself.

No one says anything for a while, and Felicity just nods towards them and smiles quickly before she takes her seat again, ready to proceed with the meeting.

Before she has the time to open her mouth to address the first point on the agenda, Mr. Wenkins, one of the oldest board members looks at her and starts speaking.

“Are you certain it is wise to keep working while you are pregnant? A pregnancy can be tiring and we know this job is time-consuming. Maybe it would be better if we appointed an Interim-CEO during the time of your pregnancy, so as to not strain yourself,” he says with a fake smile.

“I can assure you that won’t be necessary. I’m perfectly healthy, but thank you for your concern,” Felicity answers, with a smile as fake as his.

“I think what Mr. Wekins means to say,” says Mr. William, a broad member Felicity really can’t stand because he is constantly questioning all of her decisions. “Is that maybe it would be wiser for someone else to take care of the company for a little while, for the sake of the employees of course. We all know that pregnant women can be a little… unpredictable, and we wouldn’t want that to impact negatively on our market shares,” he continues, with a condescending smile.

Felicity doesn’t say anything for about a minute, baffled by what she has just heard. When her pregnancy with Chloe had come along, the board had constituted mainly of women and men who were understanding, and none of them had had a problem with her continuing to work during her pregnancy. The question hadn’t even been raised.

However, a new board was elected about a year ago and they have been proving themselves to be more difficult than the previous one in many matters, so it shouldn’t surprise Felicity that they would act this way. The more outspoken members of the board manage to sway the others in whatever direction they think best. Felicity can already see some of the other, more descreet, members nodding in approval, while others frown at Mr. William. She should have seen this coming and prepared better. She knows how conservative, old fashioned, and frankly sexist, this board can be. In some ways, she had dreaded their response and that is why she hadn’t wanted to tell them, but she never expected them to be this direct and open about their criticism.

“Are you saying that I am not fit to run this company anymore?” she asks, able to hear the coldness in her own voice.

“No, of course that is not what I am saying! It’s just, we all know how it went down with Tech’N’Care… Their CEO got pregnant, she stopped having as much time for the company and focused more on her family than on the business, and eventually, the shares’ prices went down…” he says, falsly concerned.

“Uh… What’s Tech’N’Care?” suddenly asks Curtis.

“Exactly,” answers Mr. William, as if Curtis has just proven his point, and Felicity sees red.

She knows that some people are still sexist and think that hiring women can be dangerous because of pregnancies and their families, but she hadn’t realized that the people on her board were that way. Yes, she has a family and she cares about it. And truthfully, her family will always come before the company.

But are they forgetting all the work she’s put in to turn the company around? How it was her and Curtis who managed to invent the next revolutionary battery who basically saved the entire company from going into bankruptcy?

Before she has the time to open her mouth and make it very clear how she feels about Mr. William’s opinion, Curtis reaches out and puts a hand on her arm, sensing how angry she is.

“Technically, Mrs. Smoak has had a family for almost four years now, and has been pregnant for four months already and doing her job so efficiently that none of you have noticed. So I think we can all agree that this won’t be an issue right?” he says, prompting the majority of the board members to nod in agreement and the tension to go down a little in the room.

Felicity, who had been about to say some things she would surely regret later on turns toward him and shoots him a grateful smile. She hates that some people are still so sexist, but angering the board members by insulting them and their beliefs isn’t the way to change their opinion, and she knows that. She’s grateful for Curtis stopping her before she did just that.

“I will go on maternity leave when it is recommended by my doctors, and until then, we all agree that I will continue to run the company and help it prosper, just like I always have, even while taking care of my daughter. Now that this matter is sorted, let’s get back to business shall we?” she says, leaving no space possible for any further argument from any of the board members, and she sees Mr. William pout and slouch in his chair at the idea that he didn’t get his way.

\-------

Felicity comes through the door and instantly feels a weight lift off her shoulders. She closes the door behind her and heavily leans against it, sighing with tiredness. She closes her eyes and drops her head against the door behind her.

She feels someone tugging on the bottom on her dress, and she looks down and smiles at Chloe.

“Are you okay Mama?” she asks with a small frown on her face.

“I’m a lot better now, actually. Thank you for asking.”

“Need a hug?” asks Chloe, enthusiastically. “Hugs always make things better!”

“Actually, that is exactly what I need,” Felicity says, before she bends down and crouches on her knees to accept her hug. She stands back up and lifts her up with her. Chloe smacks a loud kiss on her cheek and Felicity turns towards her and smiles.

“All better now?” she asks, and she claps her hands in delight when Felicity tells her that yes, she does feel better.

“Chloe Queen, get your cute butt over here for bath time young lady!” she hears Oliver’s voice call from the bathroom, and she laughs when she sees Chloe’s eyes go huge on her head and her putting a hand over her opened mouth.

“I forget bath time! Hav’to go Mama!” she says, wiggling her legs so Felicity will let her down, and running towards the bathroom when she does.

“No running in the house!” she says loudly as Chloe retreats, and the little girl instantly stops running and starts walking very quickly instead.

Felicity laughs at her daughter’s antics and shakes her head. She takes off her shoes and sighs in relief, before putting her coat and purse away and making her way to the bathroom where she can hear Chloe talking to Oliver.

By the time she reaches the bathroom, Chloe is sitting in her bath, still talking to Oliver who is kneeling in front of the tub and giving her her toys.

He turns around when he hears Felicity enter the room, and he smiles softly at her, getting up to kiss her on the lips.

“How was your day?” he asks, putting a strand of hair behind her ear and caressing her cheek with his thumb.

“Long,” she sighs. “But better now that I’m home with you two.”

Oliver looks at her, silently asking if she wants to talk about it, and Felicity simply shakes her head.

“I’ll tell you about it later, right now I just want to enjoy bath time with you two,” she answers and Chloe cheers at her.

Later on, Chloe has been put to bed and Felicity and Oliver are cuddling on the couch. Felicity has just told Oliver all about the board members and how much it hurt that they could question her. Oliver is frowning at what he just heard.

“Do you want me to go and talk to that William guy? I’m sure one visit from The Green Arrow will change his perspective on life a lot,” he says teasingly, while pressing small kisses on her neck.

“Hmm…” Felicity says in contentment. “That’s very tempting, but I don’t think arrows are going to fix this particular issue. If he questions me again, I’ll just make sure to sting him with my words instead.”

“You’re right, you don’t need arrows. Plus, a man who thinks that way is obviously too stupid to see the errors of his ways, no matter how much you talk about it with him. Even if it’s a man with a huge bow and green leather pants doing the talking,” he says, which has her laughing. “You’ll just have to continue being the competent and amazing CEO you are, and he won’t have any other choice but to see how good you are at your job, even while pregnant and slightly hormonal.”

“I’m not hormonal!” says Felicity in false-outrage, lifting herself up from Oliver and glaring at him.

“Of course you’re not honey. You’re a delight all the time,” he answers with a smile, before pushing forward and kissing her deeply.

Felicity is about to protest further, but she finds her mouth otherwise occupied. Who needs conversing and arguing in their lives anyway? There are much better ways she could be occupying her time with, and she intends to enjoy one of those ways right now.

 

* * *

 

_**5th month:** _

“Oliver, can you help me please?” Felicity calls from the bedroom where she is currently standing in front of the mirror trying to get dressed.

She hears steps rush through the corridor and sees Oliver come into the room looking a little panicked.

“Is everything okay? Did something happen?” he says, with his eyes travelling around the room as if to assess any potential threat, before they land back on her.

“I’m fine Oliver, I just need your help closing this,” she says pointing down towards her dress.

She sees his small sigh of relief, and decides that this is a conversation they are going to have to have sooner or later. Since learning she is pregnant, Oliver has been extra protective, and has been getting worried very easily.

She’s not going to lie, she enjoyed the attention at first. It was nice to have Oliver at her beck and call, willing to do anything for her. That feeling lasted for about a week. Now she’s just tired of him fussing over her all the time. She hates seeing him getting worked up and worried so often.

Oliver looks at her and pauses at the sight in front of him. Felicity can only imagine what she must look like. She’d managed to wiggle into her bright blue dress and it settled over her thighs and hips with little difficulty. The problem is she can’t manage to zip her dress up, so it is now hanging from her arms and pooling around her hips, waiting to be fastened.

Choosing — wisely in Felicity’s opinion — not to say anything, Oliver makes his way closer to her. He stands behind her, smiling at her through the mirror. He tries to do the dress up, and Felicity’s feels a surge of hope when he manages to zip it up to her lower back, but it gets stuck at that level. Felicity can feel Oliver trying to force it by using more force. She sucks in her tummy, hoping that it’ll help, but after about a minute of trying, Oliver sighs and lets the zipper go.

“If I try to force it more, I’m going to break the zipper. I think you’re going to have to go with another dress babe,” he says, kissing Felicity on the head.

“I’ve put on so much weight lately, none of my dresses fit me anymore!” she moans. “This is my favorite dress.”

“You haven’t just ‘put on weight’ Felicity,” Oliver tells her, “You’re pregnant. Your dresses aren’t meant to fit you anymore! And even if you had put on a little weight, you’d still be just as beautiful to me,” he says, pressing several kisses against her bare shoulder, still looking at her in the mirror.

“But I’m not even showing all that much yet, it makes no sense that…” Felicity says, before cutting herself off when she turns to her profile to look at herself through the mirror.

With the tight dress zipped up to her lower back and with this angle, you can clearly see the small bump on her tummy and she feels tears well into her eyes. She hadn’t realized that she would already be showing this much, and this is the visual evidence of the person growing inside her.

She turns back around to face the mirror and watches Oliver crowd against her back. He puts his arms around her waist from behind. With both of his hands resting against the bump, he smiles softly at her and caresses her stomach while pressing kisses along her right shoulder and up her neck.

“Either you’ve drunken way too much soda like you do sometimes, or you’re definitely showing quite a bit honey,” he says with a teasing note in his voice, before making a sound of protestation when Felicity elbows him in the stomach.

“I never drink enough soda for my stomach to bloat like that!” she says in annoyance.

Oliver doesn’t say anything and just looks at her with a knowing look, until Felicity’s shoulders drop and she admits defeat.

“Okay, fine. I actually do sometimes. But you know this isn’t that, this is our little baby growing in there,” she continues, and completely blames the hormones for the fresh tears in her eyes.

“I know, it’s perfect,” he answers with a reverent look in his eyes, before dropping one last kiss against her shoulder. He steps back, allowing Felicity to turn away from the mirror and towards him.

“I’m probably going to have to call Thea so we can go shopping for maternity clothes pretty soon,” Felicity sighs, already dreading the hours of Thea dragging her through dozens of shops to find the perfect clothes.

“Don’t you already have maternity clothes? We still have the clothes from when you were pregnant with Chloe somewhere around here, don’t we?” he asks, frowning softly.

“Have you met your sister?” Felicity says, staring at him with an incredulous look, “My maternity clothes are more than three years old, and there is no way Thea is letting me wear them again. ‘They’re so out of fashion!’” she says, imitating Thea’s voice and Oliver laughs in front of her.

“I stand corrected,” he says with a teasing smile. “I obviously have no idea what I’m saying when it comes to clothes and you should trust the expert in the subject. You should go this week end. I can watch Chloe and you and Thea can have a girl’s day out. Chloe and I will occupy ourselves. I’ll cook a nice dinner, that way Thea and Roy can come and eat with us after if they want.”

Felicity smiles at how much Oliver loves this kind of things. She knows that, for him, spending an afternoon watching his daughter and cooking whatever the latest recipe he found is, is a perfect way of spending the afternoon. If she’d thought Oliver’s domestic side had only been present in Ivy Town because of the novelty of it, she quickly realized when they got married that it wasn’t. This is how Oliver is and she loves that aspect of him as much as she loves every other aspect of him.

Oliver Queen, badass vigilante by night, perfect house husband and father by day. She really is a lucky woman.

\-------

“Hello,” Felicity hears Oliver say when he crosses the front door, and she instantly gets up from the couch where she was sitting, waiting for him to come home.

She crosses the living room until she is standing in front of him and kisses him, standing on her tiptoes to reach his lips. Without her shoes, Felicity is about a head shorter than Oliver is. Although it can sometimes be annoying, she has no problem making the extra effort to be able to kiss her beautiful and sexy husband.

“Hi, Honey. How was your day?” she asks, smoothing her hands over his chest.

“It was good, I’m glad to be home,” he answers, pressing forward to kiss her again. “Is Chloe in bed already?” he asks when he pulls away.

Felicity nods and wraps both of her arms around his neck to kiss him again, before stepping away and catching his hand.

“I’m glad you had a good day and that you’re home too. Now drop the pants,” she says, while making her way to the bedroom, pulling Oliver by the hand behind her.

She hears Oliver laugh behind her and an incredulous, “What?” She turns around while still walking towards the bedroom, trusting that Oliver will guide her and stop her if she’s about to bump into something.

“I said drop the pants. Well, obviously not right this second because we’re walking, and that would be far from practical. It could lead to you falling, and that really wouldn’t help with what I want to do tonight, then it could lead to…”

“Felicity,” Oliver says, cutting her off mid-babble.

“Right, sorry. What I meant is, let’s go to the bedroom and then you can drop your pants so that we can have sex. Loads and loads of sex,” she says, and sees a huge smile cross Oliver’s face.

“Oh…” he says in understanding, “It’s that part of the pregnancy already is it? I love that part,” he says, shaking his head back and forth.

“Yes, it is that part. These hormones are driving me crazy and I have been horny _all_ day. You don’t know how much self-restraint it took for me to not call you into the office so we could have a quickie. So I think I deserve to be rewarded for that.”

“You do, huh?” asks Oliver smiling, before making his way closer to Felicity and pulling her into his arms, carrying her bridal style.

A noise of surprise escapes Felicity’s lips, before she wraps her arms around his neck and pushes her head forward to start kissing the side of his face, and his neck.

Oliver makes his way quickly into the bedroom and puts Felicity down in front of the bed. He tries to make his way forward to start undressing her, but she beats him to the punch, taking off her dressing gown, revealing the bright green bra and panties she is wearing underneath it.

She knows how much Oliver loves seeing her in green underwear. Earlier in the evening, when putting them on, she had hoped that the sight of her in this pair would send Oliver over the edge. She feels a shudder go down her body when she sees Oliver’s eyes darken with desire, and she swallows once.

“Usually, I’m all for slowly gazing at each other while undressing one another, but right now, I just _really_ need you. So please, get naked and let’s do this!” she demands, taking off her underwear and laying on the bed. Her face resting against the pillows so she can watch Oliver undress.

Oliver just looks at her in surprise, eyes filled with lust as he still tries to catch his breath from seeing her in his favorite pair of underwear, before he quickly makes way of his clothes and joins her on the bed, settling on top of her.

She puts both of her arms around his neck and caresses his hair while Oliver dips down to kiss her with passion. He holds himself up with one of his arms and uses the other one to caress her side. He makes his way to her breast, running his thumb underneath it, before his fingers find her nipple to play with. She feels it harden under his hands.

Oliver pulls away from the kiss and Felicity is left panting slightly. He starts kissing down her neck and chest, but Felicity pulls him up and looks him in the eyes, trying to convey her desperation.

“Oliver, I need you inside me, now,” she says still panting, and hopes Oliver will get on with the program and just fuck her already.

However, she sees hesitation shining in Oliver’s eyes and she frowns softly, caressing his face with one of her hands.

“What’s the matter?” she asks softly, not understanding what he is hesitating about.

Oliver breathes in deeply, before looking at her with an unreadable feeling in his eyes.

“I don’t think we should have sex,” he says softly, still looking at her, as if gauging her reaction.

“You don’t want to have sex?” Felicity asks, surprised.

It’s not as if this never happens to them. Of course, like any other couple, there are moments where he or she don’t want to have sex and that’s absolutely fine. It’s just that Oliver didn’t seem opposed to the idea at all until about 30 seconds ago, and she just really needs to feel him inside of her _right now_.

“Of course I want to,” he hastens to reassure her, but still looks hesitant. “I just don’t think we should have _actual_ sex while you’re pregnant. I don’t want to hurt the baby and…”

Felicity is about to laugh and tell him he’s not _that_ big, but she stops when she sees the worried look in his eyes. She sighs, caressing his cheek with her hand, thumb rubbing against his eyebrow.

“You realize we’ve been having sex for the first four months of my pregnancy right? Including a couple of them when we didn’t know I was pregnant so we weren’t particularly… careful.”

“I know,” he says, and he looks a little embarrassed but not willing to back down on the fact either way, “It’s just… You’re showing now, which means the baby is growing and I just don’t want to risk hurting it in any way… Could we just maybe talk to the doctor about it and see if he says it’s okay?”

Felicity sighs softly. She doesn’t quite know where this is coming from, seeing as he never seemed worried when she was pregnant with Chloe, but she knows Oliver enough to know he won’t back down on the issue. Not wanting to make him do anything he isn’t a 100% on board with, she closes her eyes and groans softly, thinking of the excruciating wait they’re about to have before they can get an appointment with their doctor.

“Fine, we won’t have sex,” she says, kissing him again to show she’s willing to wait and doesn’t blame him, even if she doesn’t quite understand why he’s so worried. “I’ve just been so horny all day!” she whines, and Oliver smiles coyly at her.

“Well, there are other ways I can please you…” he says, before he starts pressing languid kisses down her body, making it known exactly how he intends to please her, and Felicity moans in pleasure.

\-------

Felicity is sitting on her chair and typing furiously on her computer when she hears the team coming back into the lair, and turns around to smile at them in greeting.

She sees Oliver putting his bow in the case, before he freezes when he turns around and sees her.

“You’re still here? I thought you were going home to get some rest,” he says frowning, and making his way closer to her.

“No, I wasn’t that tired, so I decided to wait for you to come home so we could leave together,” she says, accepting a small peck on the lips from him, and turning towards the others to smile at them.

“You all did good out there, with this,” she says, taking the object Diggle is carrying out of his hands and bringing it over to the lab. “I should be able to locate where his base of operation is.”

“Didn’t we agree over the coms that you were going to go home?” Oliver insists, still looking at her with a frown.

“No, _you_ agreed and I didn’t say anything. I wanted to make sure you all came back okay and start analyzing this to get some information as soon as I can,” she says, pointing towards the object.

“Felicity…” Oliver starts to say, before he is cut off by Diggle, clearly sensing the tension in the room.

“I think I’m going to head home. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says, waving at them and making his way out of the lair.

Roy and Thea are quick to make their escape, too. They depart promptly, leaving Oliver and Felicity alone and glaring at each other.

“I just think that maybe you shouldn’t be spending this much time in the lair, this can’t be good for the baby…” Oliver starts to say, before Felicity cuts him off.

“I’m perfectly safe, Oliver. Nothing will happen to me here, and you know I wouldn’t do anything to endanger the baby. I’m taking care of myself. You know I would go home if I felt tired, or just sleep on the cot,” she says in exasperation.

“I know, but still…” he starts to protest, before Felicity cuts him off once again.

“Okay, that’s enough. What is going on? You’ve been extra-protective since you learned I was pregnant, and I’m getting really tired of it, Oliver!” she says firmly, waiting for Oliver to explain what is going on in his head.

Since the beginning of this pregnancy, Oliver has been very protective of her and the baby, even more so that he was when she was pregnant with Chloe. Felicity would have thought that this being the second time around, Oliver would have relaxed a little more and been a little less protective, but it seems to be the contrary.

She’s been indulgent because she knows that Oliver has a protective strike a mile long, and she knows it’s coming from a good place. He only wants to protect her. But it’s starting to really get on her nerves, and she can’t take it anymore.

First, it was Oliver not letting her lift anything that weighed more than a feather. Then the sex thing. Now this. Him wanting her to stay away from the lair is too much. She knows something other than regular pregnancy nerves is going on here.

She sees Oliver’s shoulders slouch and he rubs his face with one of his hands, suddenly looking very tired and worried. He makes his way closer to Felicity and pushes her towards her chair, so she can sit back down. She turns the chair to look at him as he leans against the desk where the computers rest, looking into empty space.

“I’m just worried because of what happened with Chloe…” he says in a small voice that Felicity has to strain to hear.

“What do you mean?” she asks, taking his hand into hers and holding in tightly, seeing how this is affecting Oliver.

“It’s just…. When the doctor told us there was a problem with the placenta, I got so scared Felicity. And then, when you gave birth… I know both of you ended up being perfectly healthy and there wasn’t any trouble at all, but I was still so worried that I was going to lose you. Both of you. I just don’t want this pregnancy to have any trouble. I don’t want to be scared like that again…” he says, dropping his head and looking towards the floor, shaking his head softly.

Felicity feels tears well in her eyes and she instantly feels guilty for not figuring this out earlier. During her pregnancy with Chloe, the doctor had told them that a minor issue had occurred with the placenta and Felicity had had to be put on bed rest for the last months of her pregnancy. According to the doctor, it was a very usual issue and nothing to be worried about and she hadn’t been. Oliver hadn’t seemed that worried either, but she can tell now how wrong she’d been.

Of course Oliver had been worried then, and is worrying again, now. He has already lost so much, the fear of losing his remaining family will always be huge for him. He’ll always worry about these types of things.

Felicity gets up from her chair and makes her way in front of Oliver, hugging him close. She feels Oliver drop his head against her shoulder and both of his arms go around her waist. She drops a kiss to the top of his head, taking advantage of him leaning against the desk and being taller than him for once.

“You know that we didn’t do anything wrong during my pregnancy with Chloe right? I can only imagine the hundreds of ways you must have been blaming yourself all these years, thinking that maybe it was because of my work in the lair, or whatever other reason you’ve come up with, but it wasn’t. It’s a very common problem, and both Chloe and I ended up being perfectly healthy,” Felicity says, kissing Oliver’s temple and caressing his hair with her hands.

Oliver simply nods and stays silent, but the ways his shoulders suddenly relax and he hugs her a little tighter shows Felicity that maybe he hadn’t known that after all. She feels even more guilty for never reassuring him about that fact before. She knows Oliver. He always takes the weight of the world on his shoulders. She should’ve guessed that he would blame himself for this, too.

“And the doctor said that this time, the pregnancy is perfectly healthy,” she says, pulling away from him and taking his hand to rest is against her slightly risen stomach.

“I know, but they said that last time and look how it turned out…” he says still not quite believing her words, while caressing her stomach.

“It turned out with us having a beautiful, smart and funny little girl. I’d say it turned out perfectly actually,” answers Felicity, but she can tell that Oliver still isn’t convinced.

“Both our baby and I are going to be fine. More than fine actually, we’re both healthy and we’re going to be great. Everything is perfect with the pregnancy. As a matter of fact, the only thing bothering me right now is my husband hovering constantly,” she continues teasingly, which pulls a laugh out of Oliver.

He looks at her with love in his eyes and caresses her stomach, before bending down to press a kiss to it.

“I might have been going a little overboard…” he finally says a couple minutes later, and he laughs again when Felicity looks at him incredulously, as if to say: ‘a _little_ overboard?!’

“I know you’re worried, and I love you for it, but you don’t need to be this stressed about us all of the time. We’re fine,” Felicity says, caressing his face with her hands.

Oliver opens his mouth to say something, and before he has the time to talk, Felicity continues.

“But I know you, and I know you’re still worried. So how about we compromise? I promise that when the doctor tells me to go on maternity leave from my job at Palmer Tech, I’ll take a maternity leave from Team Arrow, too. I’ll let you deal with everything unless it’s an emergency,” she says, knowing Oliver won’t be ok until he is actively doing something to protect both her and the baby.

“Can we also agree that you’ll be back home by eleven every night from now on? I know you say you’re not tired, but I’ll just feel better if I know that you’re getting enough sleep…” he says sheepishly.

“Okay,” she says, accepting his terms.

“Thank you, and I’m sorry,” says Oliver, kissing her on the lips. I promise I’ll try to hover less…” he says with a soft smile.

“You don’t have to thank me, Oliver,” she answers, kissing him again and smiling at him. “And I won’t hold my breath for that last one… I know you, Oliver Queen, and hovering is your default setting,” she says teasingly. She smiles when Oliver laughs at her words.

“I love you,” he says, his words clearly reflected in his eyes.

“I love you too,” she answers, “Now let’s go home.”

 

* * *

 

_**6th month:** _

“And then, she kick the ball aaaallll the way to the end of the grass and me and Aunt Thea win the game!” says Chloe excitedly.

“You and Aunt Thea won the game huh? That’s great honey, I’m so proud of you!” cheers Felicity, and Chloe just looks up at her from where she is standing next to her and beams.

Felicity is holding Chloe by the hand and they are making their way towards Oliver’s office, while Chloe tells her all about her afternoon with her Aunt Thea, Uncle Roy and Sara. She is so excited and happy that’s she’s been babbling about it for the last 5 minutes, and Felicity has to smile at how much of herself she sees in Chloe in those moments.

They reach the town hall, and Felicity feels Chloe tug on her hand. She looks down at her and sees Chloe looking at her with curiosity.

“We go see Daddy now?” she asks with hopeful voice.

“Yeah honey, we’re going to see Daddy!” she answers, which has Chloe smiling and cheering by putting the hand not held by Felicity in the air.

“Yay,” repeats Felicity, “Let’s go inside and say hello.”

Felicity nods at a few people she knows while walking in the building, now familiar with most of Oliver’s staff considering he’s already been in office for several years. She and Chloe make their way to his office, and find his door already open when they reach it, with two voices coming out of it.

Felicity takes a peek inside, not wanting to disturb him if he’s in an important meeting, and she is taken aback when she recognizes Detective McKenna as the other voice she heard in the doorway. Momentarily shocked, she doesn’t think to hold back Chloe and the little girl goes barging in into the office.

“Daddy!” she screams, obviously delighted to see her father, and a huge smile blooms on Oliver’s face in answer.

“Hi baby girl,” he says, bending down to pick up Chloe. “What are you doing here?”

“Me and Mommy come to visit you!” she says excitedly, and Oliver looks towards the door where Felicity makes her entrance.

“Chloe honey, what did we say about running around?” reprimands Felicity, before smiling towards McKenna. “Hi McKenna, long time no see,” she continues and McKenna smiles back at her.

Chloe looks bashful at the reprimand for about 10 seconds, before she seems to recover and goes straight to telling Oliver all about her afternoon.

“I didn’t know you were coming over,” says Oliver with a small smile, obviously pleased to see her and Chloe. He pecks Felicity on the lips and turns back towards McKenna. “McKenna, this is my wife Felicity and our daughter Chloe,” says Oliver.

Both he and Felicity smile when Chloe instantly says, “Hello Mrs. McKenna,” with a small wave.

“Hi pretty girl,” she answers with a small smile before turning towards Felicity. “It’s nice to see you again Felicity, and congratulations!”

Felicity thanks her and smiles back. She looks at her and she can’t help but feel a little self-conscious next to the other woman. McKenna is still drop dead gorgeous, with her long black hair, perfect skin and soulful eyes. Looking at her, Felicity can easily see why Oliver was so smitten with her, seeing as she fits his type perfectly: long-legged, perfect body, and brunette. Add the fact that she is incredibly smart on top of that, and she’s just the perfect woman for him. She feels the jealousy grow inside of her and she does everything she can to tame it down.

Of course, she knows McKenna wasn’t the one for him and that Oliver chose her above all women and loves her with all of his heart, but she can’t help but feel a little out of place right now. Especially with her being pregnant, and not having had the time to wash her hair today.

“Daddy, what is that?” asks Chloe pointing at a miniature building on Oliver’s desk, and pulling Felicity out of her thoughts.

“It’s the model for the new school we’re going to build in the city honey,” he explains. “Do you want to look at it closer?”

Chloe nods, and Oliver excuses himself, walking closer to his desk so Chloe can have a look at the object, leaving Felicity and McKenna alone.

“So how have you been? How is life treating you?” asks Felicity, trying to put the irrational feeling of inferiority out of her mind.

She doesn’t know McKenna very well, but the other women was always very kind from what Oliver told her, and Felicity has a huge amount of respect for her for the job she has, which she knows isn’t an easy one.

“It’s good! I finally made Captain over in Central City, so I’m very happy about that. What about you, how far along are you?” she asks with curiosity.

“I’m about 22 weeks right now,” she says, caressing her stomach with a small smile. “And we are good. Excited to meet this little one.”

“I have to say, I never thought I’d see the day… You should’ve have seen him before, you have no idea the number of girls that would have killed to be in your place right now, and he would have never even thought about having a family. He liked playing around too much,” she says with a small laugh. “It’s nice to see him this way, and I’m glad he found that with you. Oliver Queen: Family man. It suits him.”

Felicity smiles at her but she feels uneasiness bubbling inside of her. She knows Oliver has a past, and that it is filled with _many_ women. She just doesn’t enjoy being reminded of it, especially when she’s pregnant and feeling self-conscious as it is.

McKenna couldn’t have known that of course, but she can’t help it. She feels the flare of jealousy and curiosity build inside of her, and she wonders how many women has Oliver been with exactly.

\--------

The answer to that question is a lot.

As soon as she gets back home, Felicity pulls out her laptop and starts digging around on the net, looking into the kind of websites that she usually loathes to try to find more information about Oliver’s past dating history, and she regrets it instantly.

There are pictures of Oliver at the arm of different beautiful women all over the net, and she can’t help the jealousy that grows inside of her. She knows that Oliver has been with a lot of people, but it doesn’t mean she enjoys finding evidence of that.

During her research frenzy, a sentence catches her eye and Felicity can’t help but click on the link, her curiosity too strong.

“Ol _iver Queen: Has the playboy monster really been tamed?,_ Felicity frowns and starts to read the article, where a picture of Oliver and her, obviously pregnant, is prominent. Her frown grows deeper as she reads on, and the feeling of jealousy makes its way back up.

The article basically describes how Oliver is now married, with a child and another on the way, but how they doubt this will really be able to stop him. It describes in detail of all his previous conquests and his past love affair with Laurel Lance, who died a tragic death, and Felicity instantly hates the website and vows to herself to take it out.

Not only is it reflecting poorly on Oliver and herself, it’s also painting a horrible image of Laurel and Felicity feels the bile rise in her throat at seeing their friend be described that way. The article describes her as a bimbo who died an unfortunate way, as if she wasn’t a hero and didn’t die saving the city.

Felicity is so enthralled in her reading that she doesn’t even notice anyone come into the house, and she jumps when she hears a voice behind her.

“You know, you really shouldn’t read that garbage,” Thea says and Felicity turns her head to look at her guiltily.

Thea reaches forward and takes the computer from Felicity, going through all the tabs she has open and her frown gets bigger every second. She doesn’t say anything for several minutes and Felicity feels dread grow.

Finally, Thea turns back to look at her and just stares at her.

“Felicity, why are you suddenly so interested in seeing who Oliver has slept with in the past?” she asks suspiciously, and Felicity sags down, a little ashamed at being caught.

“It’s nothing. It’s just… McKenna came back to town to talk to Oliver, and she mentioned all the women that Oliver used to be with and how they would all kill to be in my place, and I just…” she tries to explain, but Thea is still looking at her like she’s crazy.

“Exactly, they would have killed to be in your place and yet Oliver never gave them the time of the day. You really shouldn’t read this trash Felicity… It’s just wrong. Oliver isn’t the same man that he was when he dated these women,” she admonishes her, and Felicity feels heat rising on her cheeks in embarrassment.

“I know, and you’re right. I just can’t help it sometimes… He’s been with all these women and it’s still hard to believe he would chose me.”

“Oh Felicity… My brother loves you with all of his heart, and I really can’t imagine him being any happier than he is with you. You shouldn’t compare yourself to these women, because they never meant anything compared to what you mean to him,” Thea says, sitting closer to Felicity and putting her arm around her shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance.

“You’re right. It’s probably this little guy making me crazy, it’s nothing…” Felicity starts to say and she stops when she feels Thea freeze next to her.

“This little guy?” Thea finally asks with a teasing voice and a huge smile. “Are you having a boy? I thought you and Oliver didn’t want to find out the sex yet!”

“We didn’t,” says Felicity with a small smile. “But I just saw… _it_ pointing out during the ultrasound and it was kind of hard to miss the added parts compared to Chloe’s ultrasound. But please, don’t tell Oliver, I don’t think he noticed and I want him to have the surprise.”

Thea beams at her and Felicity can’t help the answering smile that blooms on her face.

“You’re having a boy, I’m so excited!” she says, hugging Felicity close to her body and Felicity laughs in her neck.

“I know, me too!” she smiles. “Now give me my laptop back,” she says, trying to grab the laptop from where it’s resting on the couch behind Thea.

“Felicity, you’re not going to continue looking at these stupid articles are you?” asks Thea, frowning again before she smiles when she hears Felicity answer.

“No, I’m not. I just want to take that horrible website down, and hack my way into some of these websites to erase some pictures. They really shouldn’t have criticized my husband or friends on the net. This is my domain, and I’ll show them who they messed with,” she says with a devious smile, and instantly starts typing furiously when Thea gives her the computer back immediately.

\---------

Later in the evening, Felicity is watching One Tree Hill, the TV show she’s been binge watching lately, while Oliver puts Chloe to bed. When she sees the fight between two of her favorite characters, she starts thinking. Maybe Haley had the right idea after all…

Oliver comes back into the room, and instantly sits next to her on the couch, putting an arm around her shoulder and playing with a loose curl near her ear.

“Chloe is down for the count, I think her afternoon with Thea and Roy really wore her out, but she had fun,” he says, and then seems to notice Felicity being engrossed by the show. “Felicity, are you okay? What are you watching?”

She turns towards him and smiles, before taking his hand.

“One Tree Hill, but that’s not important right now. I think you should write me a list of every women you’ve ever been with. That is, had a relationship with or simply slept with, if you can remember their names of course,” she says, and then stares at him waiting for his answer.

Oliver looks at her, obviously completely taken by surprise, and she just sees him open and close his mouth a few times, not knowing what to say.

“What? Why would I do that? What even gave you this idea?” he asks incredulous, and Felicity simply nods towards the TV.

“I was watching the show and Haley, after finding a sex tape of her husband with one of her best friends, asked him to write a list of all the girls he’s even been with. I think she had the right idea and I would like you to do the same,” says Felicity, not understanding why Oliver is acting as if the idea is completely crazy.

Oliver looks towards the TV where the show is paused on an image of a pregnant women waving a tape towards a man, and he turns back towards Felicity.

“So… Being pregnant and maybe a little hormonal yourself, you decided it would be a good idea to try to imitate another hormonal pregnant women? Really? Why would she even ask him to do that?!” Oliver says, baffled at what she wants him to do.

“Isn’t it obvious? She doesn’t want to be unpleasantly surprised by finding anymore sex tapes of her husband and other women of course! And if you don’t mind, I’d like to spare myself that same surprise, because let me tell you, it did not look pleasant and I would not take it as gracefully as she did,” Felicity says, still looking at Oliver and waiting for him to get up and start writing.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that honey. I’ve destroyed all the sex tapes I made a long time ago,” he says calmly, before wincing when he sees the look on Felicity’s face.

“ _All_ the sex tapes? How many sex tapes did you even make Oliver?” she asks not quite believing what she’s hearing. “You know what, never mind. Don’t answer that question. Please just write the list. And here’s a tip for you, maybe you should separate the list into three categories: Pre-Island, Post-Island and On the Island because they certainly seemed to be a lot of beautiful women on this deserted Island of yours!” she says, before getting up and storming into the bedroom, leaving a baffled and confused Oliver behind her.

She knows she’s being a little irrational right now, she can recognize that. But since seeing McKenna and reading the article, the flame of jealousy and the self-consciousness just won’t leave her alone, and she can’t take it anymore. She just needs to know what she’s standing against, and who her competition is.

A small voice in Felicity’s head tells her that this is probably just the hormones speaking, and that she doesn’t have competition when it comes to Oliver, just like he doesn’t have any competition when it comes to her, but she doesn’t want to be rational right now. She just wants to find out and deal with it one way or another.

\-------

Felicity is cutting vegetables for dinner for Oliver and herself when he comes up to her and gives her a piece of paper. Chloe is already asleep and Felicity hasn’t seen Oliver for most of the day, since he’s been at work and fairly busy with the project for the new school. It’s been a few days since she asked him to write the list, and now that she thinks about it she feels a little ridiculous about her behavior, but still curious enough to actually want to read it.

She hadn’t brought up the subject when Oliver told her that he would write the list but he just needed a few days, figuring that considering the number of women Oliver was with, he’d probably need a little time to remember all of them and put them into writing.

“This is my list,” Oliver says, starring at Felicity. “But it’s not the list you asked me to write, it’s the much shorter list of the women I’ve been crazy in love with in my life, and it’s a lot shorter. It’s only one name in fact, yours.”

Felicity’s mouth drops in surprise and she stares at Oliver, feeling the embarrassment and love grow in her chest. She looks at Oliver for a few minutes, and a sudden thought hits her.

“You know, it’s funny. That is exactly the solution Nathan came up with in the episode…” she says suspiciously, and she sees a smile grow on Oliver’s face.

“I know,” he says calmly. “Diggle will never let me live down the fact that he caught me watching that show in the lair… And he wouldn’t listen to me when I told him that it was for research purposes, so I hope you enjoy it,” he continues, and Felicity busts out laughing before putting both of her arms around Oliver’s neck and kissing him deeply.

The kiss doesn’t last long because she can’t help laughing and Oliver is smiling in embarrassment, but it doesn’t matter, she just had to show him how much she loves him.

“I’m so sorry Oliver, I know I’ve been ridiculous these past few days…” Felicity says, brushing tears of laughter from her eyes and shaking her head when she thinks of her behavior. “I think the hormones are making me act a little crazy, and I just…”

“It’s okay,” says Oliver, cutting her off with a small kiss. “But I have to ask, why the sudden need to know? Jealousy has never been an issue with us and you know I would never cheat or do anything to hurt you.”

He cups her face in his hands and Felicity closes her eyes and tries to will the shame she feels away. She figures after acting crazy for the past few days, she at least owes Oliver the truth, even if she hates to admit it.

“I know. I know you would never do that. And this wasn’t even really about you…” says Felicity, and she continues when she sees Oliver frowning, obviously not understanding what she means. “Seeing McKenna… It just reminded me of how many beautiful women you’ve been with in the past. And these last weeks, I’ve just been feeling fat and bloated, and I just started worrying about how I could even compare when in that state, and it drove me a little crazy… I’m sorry.”

Oliver looks at her and she can see the love shine in his eyes. He cups her face and smiles at her, pressing a small kiss to her lips before pulling back to look at her.

“Felicity, you should have told me you were feeling that way. You’re always on my case about not opening up to you, and yet you decide to hold this inside of you, probably causing yourself a lot of unnecessary worry and stress,” he says.

Felicity frowns, not quite knowing what he means by that.

“What do you mean Oliver? I’ve been the one that’s been feeling irrationally jealous and self-conscious, there’s nothing you could have done to change that. This was in no way your fault,” she says, not wanting Oliver to blame himself when she was the one being crazy.

“I know that,” he says, caressing her cheek and looking at her as if willing her to understand. “But I would have told you instantly that there was no competition standing. You are the love of my live Felicity Queen, and you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever lied eyes on, especially when you are carrying my child. So you have no reason to feel self-conscious, because this,” he says while caressing her elevated stomach. “Only makes you even more attractive to me, and you are more perfect to me than any of those other women ever were. I’m willing to repeat that every day until you hear me, and finally believe me.”

Felicity doesn’t say anything, floored at his words. She feels tears well in her eyes and she smiles when Oliver brushes them away with his thumbs.

“Oh… That would have made it better,” she finally says and Oliver laughs in answer.

“I love you. Thank you for being so perfect,” she says, pushing on her tip toes to kiss him.

Oliver bends down and puts both of his hands under her butt, lifting her into his arms and making her swollen stomach press against his. Felicity puts her legs around his waist and she feels want grow inside of her at how easily Oliver can carry her, even when 6 months pregnant.

“Now, how about we go to the bedroom and I show you exactly how attractive and sexy you are?” he whispers in her hear, before pressing kisses down her jaw and neck and carrying her into their bedroom.

 

* * *

 

**_7th month:_ **

Felicity is answering emails from her tablet when she feels Oliver juggle his knee next to her. She does her best to ignore the movement and tries to focus on her work, but she can still feel the movement against her own leg and it keeps distracting her.

After around three minutes of her trying to ignore the movement and Oliver moving around nervously on his chair, she finally sighs and looks towards him, putting her hand on his knee.

“What’s going on, Honey?” she asks, knowing that something is bugging him and trying to be patient.

“What?” he says, looking towards her and smiling briefly, although it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Nothing, I’m fine.”

Felicity looks at him and raises her eyebrows in disbelief. She can see the obvious nervousness in his body, and he should know by now that his usual ‘I’m fine’ answer never cuts it with her. She stares at him quietly, waiting for him to open up to her and after a few seconds of him silently staring back, he finally does.

“I’m sorry, I’m just nervous about the appointment,” he says, his shoulders falling and eyes shining with worry.

Felicity sighs discretely, and puts her tablet away, knowing that this is a conversation that will require her entire attention. For a few days now, Oliver has been withdrawn and quiet. She hadn’t wanted to push him to open up, knowing that he sometimes needs a few days to put his thoughts together, and that he would probably come to her when he felt ready to talk.

She should have known better, and she’s starting to regret her choice now. Especially since Oliver’s nervousness has only increased tenfold since they made their way into the waiting room 10 minutes ago.

“Oliver, honey. I know you’re worried, but you have no reason to be. I feel absolutely fine, and,” she starts to say, before cutting herself off and taking Oliver’s hand in hers, before pressing it against her raised stomach. “You feel that? I think that’s the baby’s way of telling his Daddy that he feels fine too, and he should stop worrying.”

A loving smile blooms on his face when he feels the kicks the baby is giving, and he gets the same look of wonder which has been on his face every time he’s able to feel the movements inside of her. He caresses her stomach softly and looks back up at her, leaving his hand where it is.

“You’re right, it’s just…,” he starts to say, before a voice cuts him off.

“Mrs. Queen?” a nurse asks from the doorway of an office, prompting Felicity and Oliver to look towards her. “The doctor is ready to see you now.”

Oliver gets up first and hovers close to Felicity, wanting to help her get up. Felicity discretely rolls her eyes at his behavior, before ignoring him and standing up on her own. She’s only 7 months pregnant and she doesn’t need Oliver hovering around her for the next two and a half months of her pregnancy. She doesn’t want to encourage his behavior.

She still reaches for his hand though, and squeezes it gently, showing her support when she notices that Oliver is still visibly nervous. They make their way into the office, and Felicity starts undressing to slip into the gown that was left for her by the nurse.

She takes off her top and she can feel Oliver’s eyes on her, even if she can’t see him watching her. Once the gown is on, she looks towards him and smiles.

“Enjoying the view?” she asks, when she sees Oliver’s eyes go between her chest and swollen belly, before licking his lips slowly.

Oliver finally looks back up into her eyes, and he smiles softly, even though Felicity can still see residual nervousness shining in his eyes.

“Always,” he says, before he comes closer and pecks her on the lips.

When the doctor comes in a few minutes later, Felicity is laying down on the examination table and Oliver is hovering close to her, too nervous to sit down.

“How are we feeling Mrs. Queen?” asks the doctor, making his way into the room.

Felicity feels Oliver tense next to her, probably dreading her answer. Before answering, she turns towards him and takes his hand into hers squeezing it in reassurance, but looking at him sternly. As if she wouldn’t have told him if something was wrong.

When she sees Oliver’s shoulders relax minutely, she turns back towards the doctor and smiles at him.

“I’m feeling great, excited to meet this little one!” she says, caressing her belly over the gown and from the corner of her eye, she sees the small smile that graces Oliver’s features at the mention of their child.

“I’m glad to hear that. Anything I should know about? No unusual pain, tiredness?” he asks, while prepping the ultrasound machine.

“No, I feel great. I would say I’m a little moody and I don’t think Mister over there will argue with me,” she says pointing towards Oliver, “But other than that I feel fantastic.”

“You moody? Never,” Oliver says, bending down to press a kiss against her forehead, even though Felicity can feel him smiling through the kiss. She turns towards him and smiles in answer, glad that she was able to make him forget about his nerves, even for a little bit.

“You liar,” she says and Oliver just winks in answer.

Their moment is broken when the doctor turns back towards them with the transducer prob in his hand, and asks them if they are ready before lifting up her gown and putting the gelled down device on her belly.

Both Felicity and Oliver turn towards the screen, trying to see an image of their baby and Felicity feels tears well in her eyes when she’s able to discern the head and little legs of the baby. She turns towards Oliver and sees him looking towards the monitor with an awed look and she smiles softly, before turning back towards the monitor herself.

The baby has changed position since the last ultrasound, and she can clearly see how he has grown since the last time they saw him. His head is bigger and his legs are a little longer, and God. She just can’t wait to meet this new person.

“Have you changed your mind about learning the sex of the baby?” Dr. Simmons asks suddenly, pulling her and Oliver away from their awed contemplation of their baby.

“No, we haven’t,” says Oliver decidedly, and Felicity just smiles, staying silent. She doesn’t have the heart to tell Oliver that she’s known the sex of their baby since their last ultrasound. She knows that he wants to be surprised, and she won’t take that away from him.

Around twenty minutes later, Dr. Simmons has left them to admire the image he printed of their baby and left the room, giving Felicity the time to get dressed again. He comes back in and sits at his office with Felicity and Oliver in front of him.

He asks Felicity a few routine questions, and jots down all of her answers, although he doesn’t seem to be worried about anything and tells them that everything with her pregnancy seems to be perfectly normal so far.

“So Mrs. Queen, I was wondering if you wanted me to put you on maternity leave now or if you would rather wait a couple of weeks? Legally speaking, you are totally in your rights to request to be put on leave, but since you are feeling fine, it is up to you. I know that some women prefer to work as long as they can,” he asks, looking at Felicity expectantly.

Felicity stays quiet for a few seconds, thinking over her options. On the one hand, she feels absolutely fine and she knows that she will surely be bored to death if she doesn’t go to work. Plus, she promised Oliver that she would stop all Arrow-related work too when she went on maternity leave, and she doesn’t know if she’s ready to give it up yet. They are in the middle of tracking a particularly annoying hacker, and she doesn’t know how the team will be able to manage without her…

But on the other hand, she can feel Oliver tense next to her, and when she turns towards him, she can see the nervousness radiating from him, even though he is trying to keep it quiet and let her make the decision.

“What do you think Oliver?” she asks, and when he turns to look at her, she can clearly see the answer in his eyes.

“It’s your choice Felicity, but if it was up to me… I would prefer you stop working. I know it’s your life, your decision, as you’ve always told me. But even though the pregnancy is healthy right now, that’s what the doctors thought last time as well, and we know how that ended up going… I don’t want to risk anything going wrong this time,” he says, almost begging her to stop with his eyes.

She reaches forward and takes his hand into hers, squeezing it reassuringly and resting them both on her leg, before she turns back towards the doctor.

“I think I’ll go on maternity leave now, Dr. Simmons,” she says, and she can feel Oliver deflate in relief next to her.

The doctor simply smiles and nods, before he gets started on the paperwork. Felicity turns towards Oliver, and she finds him looking at her with so much gratitude and love, that she feels tears well into her eyes again. God, the hormones are making her cry all the time, it’s a wonder she doesn’t have permanent tear tracks on her cheeks these days.

“I love you” he mouths at her, and Felicity pushes forward to peck him gently on the lips, before she turns back to watch the doctor complete the paperwork, keeping Oliver’s hand in hers.

\--------

Felicity is sitting on the couch and sighs for what has to be the thousandth time in less than thirty minutes. That’s it, she’s had it with not doing anything all day. She is officially bored to death, and she has no idea how she even got through being on _bed rest_ for months last time. At least this time, she’s still allowed to walk and do stuff, even though she has no idea what to do anymore. It’s nice to know she has the option.

She is looking towards the DVD shelf calculatingly when she hears the front door open and she turns around to see John make his way into the house.

“Someone looks like they are having fun,” says Diggle teasingly, when he notices her face and makes his way to sit next to her.

Felicity glares at him, in too much of a bad mood to appreciate the teasing right now.

“John, please tell me you are here to bring me a case? Something I can help with?” she asks imploringly, before deflating when John shakes his head at her.

“No can do, sorry Felicity,” he says, smiling gently towards her. “But it can’t be that bad. I’m sure there’s tons of things to do around the house,” he continues, before pulling back a little when Felicity turns towards him and glares.

“Not that bad? I’m sorry John, have you ever been 7 month pregnant? Unable to move as freely as you would like, hungry all the time, not allowed to work anymore, stuck in the house all day while your child is at daycare and your husband is at work and saving the world most nights? No you haven’t. I have already organized our closet not once, but _three_ times. I’ve finished all of my shows, I’ve read so many books words are dancing behind my eyelids every time I close my eyes, and right now, I was considering organizing our DVD shelf by alphabetical order. That is how bored I am. So as Rachel Green very wisely said one day, ‘No Uterus, no opinion,’” she finishes, breathing loudly from her angry rant and she sees Diggle look at her with surprise and amusement.

“Angry voice, wow… I so do not envy Oliver right now. Also, I have no idea who this Rachel Green person is…” he starts to say, and before Felicity has the time to educate him on the wonders of ‘Friends,’ he continues, “But I do know of something that will help with at least one aspect of all of that, and will surely make you happy.”

“I doubt that,” she answers petulantly, and she scowls when John laughs in answer.

“How about some Big Belly Burger? It’ll at least help with the hunger, and Lyla could drink at least three of their mint-chocolate chip milkshakes in a row when she was pregnant. My treat?” he asks.

About thirty minutes later, Felicity has to admit she feels a lot happier. She is sitting with a delicious milkshake, a burger that has to be the size of her head and an enormous portion of fries. She couldn’t love John more than she does right now.

She sighs happily, and John laughs from where he is sitting in front of her, a simple vanilla milkshake and burger in front of him.

“So, arranging the DVDs by alphabetical order uh? That is very worrisome,” he says teasingly, and Felicity rolls her eyes at him.

“I am so bored John! I’ve been cooped inside the house for two weeks now with nothing to do. Oliver is being such a worrywart. He does most of the housekeeping, so I don’t even have that to do! Yesterday, I went grocery shopping and when Oliver came back and saw it, I swear he had the biggest kicked puppy look on his face, as if I had betrayed him or insulted his alpha male ‘I will take care of my pregnant mate’ ways by doing that,” she rants in answer, and she smiles when Diggle bursts in laughter at her imitation of Oliver.

“Seriously,” she continues. “I don’t know what to do anymore. Chloe comes back at 3 from daycare and it’s nice to be able to spend some more time with her but the rest of the time? I’m just so bored. I’m too uncomfortable to sleep, and believe me, I’ve tried many positions. This morning, I thought I would try to put my legs…”

Felicity stops her babble suddenly when she sees the look on Diggle’s face, and she just sighs. “You know what I mean.”

“I know. Lyla was the same way,” says Diggle with a soft smile on his face.

“Oh god, I’m a terrible friend! How is Lyla doing? You both have to be exhausted with John Junior surely keeping you up at night. You know you can send Sara to come and spend some time with us whenever you want right? You’d only have one child to think about that way, and it’ll make Chloe’s day.”

“I know. Thank you,” he answers with a soft smile. “And she’s alright, they’re both doing great. But for the record? In a few years when I forget about how it is to have a newborn inside the house and want to have another child? Please remind me of the sleepless night, diaper changes and vomit all over your clothes, I’ll appreciate it.”

“Will do,” says Felity laughing at Digg’s deadpan tone. “Also, thank you for these words of encouragements before our little one comes out. It’s good to be reminded of the joys of parenting a newborn!”

“You know I’m always here for you Felicity,” Says Digg with an exaggerated smile and wink.

\---------

“Honey I’m home!” Felicity hears Oliver call from the door, and she comes out of the kitchen to smile at him.

“Mommy!” Chloe screams, running towards Felicity and hugging her legs.

Felicity laughs and bends down, picking her up and carrying her against her hip. She nuzzles her cheek and presses a small kiss against her hair.

“Hi baby girl, how was school today?” she asks.

“I draw a big turtle! And mommy, look who’s here!” Chloe says excitedly, and Felicity turns towards where she is pointing and notices Sara standing next to Oliver and chatting quietly with him.

“Hi Honey,” says Felicity, smiling towards Sara. She makes her way closer to her and Oliver and hugs the little girl briefly with one arm, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“Hi Auntie Felicity! I’m having a sleep over even though there is school tomorrow!” she says, obviously excited and Felicity laughs gently.

“I can see that,” she says, turning towards Oliver and he lifts his hands up in the air, as if claiming his innocence.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he says with a small smile. “I got a call from Digg that said that apparently you offered to take one of their kids off their hands and to come and pick Sara up before you changed your mind.”

Felicity laughs and smiles down at Sara.

“Well we’re always glad to have you here,” she says, before dropping Chloe back on the floor when she says that she wants to be let down.

“Come on, I show you my new bow!” Chloe suddenly says, taking Sara’s hand in hers and pulling her towards her bedroom.

Felicity watches the girls go and she smiles in their direction, listening to Chloe tell Sara all about her new toys, and the other girl just smiling and nodding along.

She feels Oliver make his way closer to her and turns back towards him, just in time to have him put his arms around her waist and bend down to peck her gently.

“Hi,” he says, a soft smile on his face, before he kisses her again.

“Hi,” she answers, before taking his hand and pulling him towards the couch so they can sit comfortably.

“How was your day?” he asks, playing with her fingers from where their hands rest against his leg.

“Oh you know, I did so many important stuff,” she says, looking at him sternly. “Cleaned up our closet a couple times, organized our cabinet drawers, watched so many info-commercials I have a headache…”

Oliver winces in sympathy and looks at her bashfully.

“Yeah, Diggle mentioned something about DVDs?” he asks teasingly, and Felicity hits him gently against the shoulder.

“I can’t go on like that for the next two months Oliver!” she says, even though she knows that going on maternity leave was her choice, and she can’t blame him for it. “I know you’re worried, but I can’t do nothing all day, it’s not who I am. You have to _at least_ let me cook and do the shopping while you are at work.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. And you could do the shopping and cooking, even though we both know we’re all in danger of losing quite a bit of weight if you do the cooking,” he says, before laughing when Felicity whacks him against the shoulder again. “Or… You could help us with something else instead.”

He gets up from the couch and goes to his brief case, before pulling a file out of it and bringing it back to Felicity on the couch. He hands it to her, and Felicity can feel his eyes on her when she instantly opens it to read it.

When she sees what’s inside the file, she feels hope rise inside of her and she whips her head back up to look at Oliver in surprise, not sure of what he’s saying exactly.

“I thought we said no Arrow business once I was on maternity leave?” she asks in a small voice, feeling tears of joy well in her eyes again. Because of the hormones, Felicity has taken to crying at the drop of a hat, and even though she knows Oliver will never be comfortable with seeing her cry, he’s learned to tell the difference between her hormonal tears and actual tears and they mostly manage to ignore the hormonal ones now.

“If I knew Grade A hackers could make you this happy, I would have asked this guy to cause havoc in the city earlier,” he jokes, but Felicity just keeps looking at him, waiting of him to explain.

“I know we said no Arrow Business. And I stand by that mostly, I don’t really want you coming to the lair,” he says uncertain, and Felicity nods quickly to let him know she’s okay with that. “However, I know that you hate feeling useless and having nothing to do, and I figured… We could really use your help with this one. None of us know how to hack like you do, and maybe you could work on it from home on your laptop? That way you could help us out without being in too much danger…”

Felicity looks at him and she feels her love for this man increase tenfold. No matter how he presents it, she knows that this isn’t really to help the team. Sure, they could use her help. But Curtis has been in the know for years, and he’s skilled enough with a computer that he would be able to help them with the tech stuff. He did it for a while when she left the team all those years ago, and although he prefers not to, she knows he would do it again if they asked.

No, she knows this is for _her_. As much as Oliver worries about her and her health, he knows her well enough to know she is going crazy with boredom in the house, and he’s willing to put his worries aside to make her happy.

“Are you sure?” she asks. As much as she’s happy about what he is saying, they had made a deal, and she doesn’t want him to be worried about her overdoing it all day long. She might be grumpy these days, but she would never resent Oliver for being worried about her and wanting her to take it easy. She knows this isn’t easy for him.

“I trust you,” he says simply, and that settles it.

He says is so certainly, that Felicity loses her breath a little. Because this is Oliver trusting her with his worst fear. He is trusting her enough to know that she will know her own limits and not overdo it, even though he is scared to death, and that means the world to her.

“I really do have the best husband ever,” she says and laughs softly when Oliver pushes forwards and delicately wipes the tears that have fallen down her cheeks.

“You really do,” he says with a teasing smile. “Now, how about I leave you to catch up on the case, while I go and make a meal that won’t give us all food poisoning?”

Felicity swats him playfully on the shoulder with the file, but she knows that Oliver doesn’t believe her annoyance for a second because of the huge grin that is on her face.

He gets up from the couch and makes his way towards the kitchen while laughing quietly.

“Oliver?” she stops him, and he turns around to look at her. “I love you,” she continues, and his face instantly softens.

“I love you too,” he says, before he turns back around to make his way into their kitchen while Felicity plunges herself in the file, finally feeling like she has something meaningful to do.

 

* * *

 

_**8th month:** _

“Oliver, Diggle, you have two coming your way, they’ll be with you in less than a minute,” Felicity says, surveilling the three screens in front of her.

“Speedy, where are you at?” she hears Oliver’s voice from the com, and instantly starts looking through the images of the different cameras in the house to try and locate where Thea is.

“I’m in the office, and I’ve located the device. But guys, I’m going to need a little help getting it out of the room…” Thea says, and although she can’t see her facial expressions, Felicity can easily imagine the nervous look on Thea’s face from her tone of voice.

“What, why? It’s just a computer, unplug it, grab it and let’s get out of there!” she hears Diggle answer with grunts, which can be explained by the two men that he and Oliver are currently fighting, as she can see on the screen.

“I would, but…” Thea starts to say, but Felicity cuts her off.

“Thea you have company!”

“I’ll go and help her,” Roy says through the com, and she sees his figure start running through the house towards where Thea is.

Felicity changes position in her seat, trying to get more comfortable while still keeping an eye on the three computer screens that are resting on their living room table, and sighs when it doesn’t help.

“We’re done here,” says Oliver, and Felicity can see two figures lying on the floor unconscious next to him and Digg. “Tell us where to go Overwatch. We’ll go and give Speedy and Arsenal a hand,”

“They’re on the East side of the house. Continue straight in that corridor and then turn right, you should hear them from there. And please hurry…”

From the screen, she can see Oliver and Diggle quickly make their way towards where Thea and Roy are already busy fighting the security guards in the office.

“Why Overwatch? Are they in over their head? Is it you, are you okay?” he asks, while he starts running at the same time, obviously concerned for Thea and Roy.

“No, no, they seem to have everything under control. I would just really appreciate it if you guys could make this quick…” she says, wiggling in her chair to try and find a better position.

“What’s going on?” Oliver asks.

He and Digg finally reach the room where Thea and Roy are, but the two of them managed to deal with the security guards by themselves. She can see four silhouettes standing still, and around six figures lying on the floor around them.

“Guess you didn’t need us after all huh?” says Digg. “Also, I now see why you couldn’t just carry this thing out by yourself…”

“Why? How is the computer?” Felicity asks, trying to see through the image of the camera, although it isn’t angled in the right direction so she can’t really discern anything. “Guys, I need the computer to try and get a visual on who this guy might be and how he operates… And if you could bring it quickly, I would really appreciate it.”

“The computer is about 1 meter long,” says Digg “Would the hard drive be enough?”

She hears Oliver speak at the same time and the worry is easily discernable in his voice,

“Felicity, are you okay?” he asks.

“The hard drive should be enough, it should be rectangular with a whole bunch of wires of different colors coming out of it, you should be able to locate it without any trouble,” she answers Digg. “So if you could just yank it and hightail your way back to the lair? I would appreciate it. And Oliver, you know how I said that it would be best if I helped you on this one and convinced you that I was perfectly okay running the coms and cameras from home while you guys went to get the computer for me? Well, it might not have been one of my best ideas. Not that I don’t think it wasn’t necessary. Because you guys don’t have eyes on the back of your heads, although I do wonder sometimes… But I—”

“Fe-li-ci-ty,” Oliver cuts her off mid babble, and Felicity can picture the look of exasperation that must be on his face right now. He’d been wearing it a lot lately. Especially when she asks him to go and get some ice cream in the middle of the night because she’s craving a very particular flavor.

“Right sorry, I’m okay. I just really need to pee, and I would appreciate it if you guys got out of here so I could go to the bathroom without running the risk of one of you guys getting in trouble on my watch. So chop, chop!” she says, hoping it would get them to move quicker.

A long silence follows her speech, and Felicity can see all of them standing frozen through the camera. After about thirty seconds of silence, she hears Oliver clear his throat.

“You mean to say, that you’ve been rushing us through the entire mission because you _need to pee_? It’s the third time in the last hour, and you went to the bathroom not even thirty minutes ago! You had us wait outside so you could go and… relieve yourself before you would even let us enter the house,” he says in exasperation.

“YES! You try having a baby sitting on your bladder for hours, and then you can judge Mister Queen. I am perfectly aware that I have been going to the bathroom more than should be humanly possible, but your child is the one playing bungee jumping on my bladder right now, so I strongly recommend you keep all further comments to yourself. Now, could you please hurry up and get the hard drive?” she says sternly.

The silence continues for a few seconds, and she suddenly sees all the figures start moving through the camera, obviously looking for the hard drive. Angry Voice always does the trick, she thinks while smiling to herself.

“Only you, Barbie,” she hears Roy laugh through the com, but she elects to ignore his comment. After a few minutes, Felicity is twisting in her chair trying to hold it to the best of her abilities while silently cursing the hacker that had them running around for weeks, when Digg finally speaks up.

“I got it!” he says, and all four of them instantly start making their way towards the exit of the house. “Now let’s go before our favorite computer whiz has an accident.”

The four figures run out of the house, and Felicity loses sight of them. They aren’t any cameras directly outside of the house, so she isn’t able to track them from there. However, all she can hear through the com is their gentle breathing, so she isn’t overly worried. A few minutes later, she hears doors closing and the noise of a car starting.

“We’re back in the van Felicity,” Thea says with an amused voice. “You’re free to go to the bathroom so my niece or nephew can finally stop torturing you!”

“Thank god,” she answers in relief and she instantly gets out of her chair. “Good job tonight you guys. I’ll see you tomorrow. Oliver, if you bring the hard drive home with you tonight, I can start looking into it tomorrow and finally figure out who this son of a b… I shouldn’t use these words in front of the baby. Anyway, you got what I meant. I’ll see you later, love you!”

She shuts down the coms before any of them has the time to answer, throws her ear plug on the table and makes her way to the bathroom as quickly as she can. Vigilanting while being 8 months pregnant really has its disadvantages sometimes.

\-------

“So, you’re a 100% certain that he’s not going to be an issue anymore right?” asks Felicity turning towards Oliver, while keeping her hands around Chloe’s back to prevent her from falling backwards. The little girl is sitting on Felicity’s lap facing her, and is currently busy playing with one of her toy cars by rolling it up and down Felicity’s elevated tummy, which gives her chills every couple minute.

Felicity and Oliver are sitting on their couch, enjoying some very deserved down time after they finally managed to catch Will Sinton, the hacker that had been driving them nuts for weeks. During the night, Oliver and the team had finally managed to catch him and deliver him to the Star City PD, and Felicity still has a hard time believing it.

Oliver has his arm around her shoulder, and Felicity can see him smile towards Chloe, before he turns to look at her.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he says, pressing a kiss to her temple. “It’s over. We got him. _You_ got him.”

“Thank god it’s over,” Felicity says in relief, dropping her face on Oliver’s shoulder. “So for now, I’m done with our nightly activities until this little one is out. I don’t want to risk distracting you because I need to pee, or you know, actually go into labor.”

“I would appreciate that very much. Also, no going into labor for a while,” he says, tapping her stomach gently, before he bends down to be closer to it.

“You hear me baby? You’re not ready to come out yet, so stay put for a while. And try to stop jumping around so much in there, your mother will apreciate it.”

Felicity looks down at Oliver with a loving smile on her face, and she reaches up to caress his hair with one of her hands while keeping the other one around Chloe.

“Why is Daddy talkin’ to your tummy, Mama?” Chloe suddenly asks, and Oliver instantly pops back up.

“Well, I’m not talking to Mommy’s tummy per say, I’m speaking to the baby inside Mommy’s tummy.” Oliver tries to explain.

Felicity sees Chloe frown a bit and drop the car from her stomach, obviously deep in thought.

“There’s a baby in there?” she asks curiously, looking towards Felicity as if to ask for confirmation, and when Felicity simply nods, her frown grows deeper.

“Where is the baby’s Mommy and Daddy?” she suddenly asks, and Felicity feels her breath catch in her throat.

“We’re the baby’s Mommy and Daddy, Honey. This is going to be your little brother or sister… Do you remember when we told you you were going to have a little brother or sister?” Felicity answers gently.

“But…” Chloe stars, looking between Felicity and Oliver as if she is missing something. “Your my mommy and daddy!”

Felicity can see tears starting to well in Chloe’s eyes, and she feels her heart break at the sight. Both she and Oliver have made sure to explain everything to Chloe, and to mention the baby to her numerous times to try to prepare the little girl. She thought Chloe understood, but they obviously didn’t do a good enough job at explaining.

“We are Chloe,” says Oliver, reaching to take Chloe into his arms and sitting her sideways on his own lap so she can nest against his chest while still seeing Felicity. “We’re always going to be your parents and we’re always going to love you very much. But we’re also going to be this little baby’s parents and love them too… Is that okay?”

Chloe doesn’t say anything for a while and Felicity can still see silent tears running down her cheeks. She holds her breath, waiting for the answer.

“But what about me? I’m your baby! The baby live in my bedroom and take all my toys?” Chloe asks indignant, and Felicity rushes forward to press a kiss to the little girl’s forehead and push her hair back on her head.

“Oh no honey, you’ll always be our baby. But now we’ll just have two babies? And your room and your toys will still be yours. This baby will have his or her own room and toys. And we can share some of them right?”

“Okay…” says Chloe, although she still doesn’t look convinced.

“Plus,” Oliver starts to say looking down at her. “You’re going to be the big sister. That is a very important role. That means the baby will love you and look up to you, and you can love him or her back and teach them stuff. You can teach them how to color inside the lines, how to count to ten, you can teach them plenty of stuff! Having a little brother or sister is just like having a new best friend, like me and Aunt Thea!”

Felicity looks at Oliver in disbelief at that, remembering some of the most memorable fights the two siblings have had throughout the years, but she chooses to keep that information to herself, only laughing softly when Oliver looks at her sternly as if to dare her to say something right now.

“Aunt Thea was a baby?” Chloe asks in disbelief, and Felicity smiles lovingly at her.

“Well, we were all babies at first, not just Aunt Thea. But yes, she’s younger than Daddy. That means that she was a baby when Daddy was already a big boy like you are a big girl now.”

“And you like Aunt Thea?” Chloe asks Oliver, still trying to wrap her mind around everything.

“I loved Aunt Thea,” he answers. “I still do. So what do you think? Do you think maybe you can share your Mommy and Daddy with this baby too and love them like we do? Do you think you can be the big sister?”

Felicity has to hide her smile when Chloe sits up straight in Oliver’s lap and nods seriously, obviously taking great pride in her new role.

“I be the best big sister eva!” she announces, and neither Oliver nor Felicity can hide their smiles anymore as they laugh softly.

Chloe looks at them in question, before quickly turning her attention back towards Felicity’s stomach and pushing forward to kiss it loudly.

“I love you baby!” she says, and Felicity feels tears well in her eyes.

She looks up towards Oliver, and she finds him already watching her with a goofy smile on his face and joy radiating from him.

“And I love all three of you,” he says softly, pressing a kiss to the top of Chloe’s head before pushing forward and pecking Felicity on the lips.

She looks back down towards where Chloe is now busy talking to her stomach like Oliver did a few minutes ago. Chloe is telling the baby all about how Mommy’s cookies are a bit sticky, but Grandma’s cookies are yummy and the best. A huge smile grows on Felicity’s face and joy lifts her heart up. She looks back up towards Oliver and smiles lovingly at him. They’ll all be okay. As a matter of fact, they’ll all be great. Nothing else is possible with a family like hers.

\------

Felicity is busy scrubbing the floor with a small bruch when she hears the front door open and sees a pair of boots in her eye sight a few seconds later. She doesn’t bother to look up, and she just focuses on the stain she can see on the floor, determined to clean it right now.

“Hm… Felicity? What are you doing?” Oliver asks, and Felicity sighs and looks up at him from where she is kneeling on all fours on the floor.

“What does it look like I’m doing Oliver? I’m cleaning, obviously!” she says rolling her eyes, before she turns her attention back towards the wooden floor.

“Yes, I see that. But why?” he asks, crouching down in front of her so he can look her in the eyes.

“The baby is going to come soon, Oliver, and nothing is ready! The house is dirty, and the nursery isn’t even finished yet. We still have to buy a lounging table and finish building the crib. I won’t even mention how we still have to buy diapers, and formula, and…” she starts to say, working herself up before Oliver pushes forward and interrupts her with a soft kiss on the lips.

“Calm down Felicity. It’s okay. Maybe you shouldn’t be the one kneeling down on the floor cleaning though?” he says tentatively, and Felicity lifts her head up and glares at him.

“Why? Are you implying I’m too fat to be kneeling on the floor and cleaning my own house?” she says irritably, and she sees Oliver trying to suppress a smile, which doesn’t help her mood at all.

“Of course that’s not what I’m saying, but you _are_ pregnant Felicity. It really can’t be that comfortable for you to be in this position, and it may hurt the baby”, he says gently, trying to reassure her. “Maybe we could call Rosa and ask her to come clean the house again tomorrow? She could come twice a week instead of just once until the baby is born?”

Felicity sighs and lifts back up slightly, looking at him sheepishly.

“I know I’m not being rational right now, but I feel like I have to be the one to do this…” she says trying to explain what she is feeling. Surprise rises inside of her when she sees Oliver nod as if what she is saying makes perfect sense.

“Ah, I understand. You’re nesting,” he says, as if that is a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“I’m what now?” Felicity asks in disbelief, and Oliver smiles gently at her in answer, still crouching in front of her.

“You’re nesting. All the baby books I’ve read recently said that nesting is a perfectly common thing to happen for parents shortly before the baby is born. It means you’re preparing the house for the baby’s arrival, and you feel the need to make sure everything is ready for him or her.”

Felicity looks at him and she can’t quite believe what she is hearing.

“You do realize this is our second pregnancy right? When did you even find the time to read new baby books?”

“I know, but nesting doesn’t happen every pregnancy. With everything that happened with Chloe, maybe your mind was otherwise occupied last time. And I know it’s our second pregnancy, but still… it can’t hurt to be prepared,” he says sheepishly and shrugs in embarrassment.

Felicity feels her heart melt at the idea of her husband, mayor of the city by day and vigilante by night, reading baby books to prepare for the arrival of their second child.

“You are adorable,” she says.

“I do try,” he says with a smug smile, all traces of embarrassment gone, before he pushes forward and pecks her on the lips. “How about this? Right now, I can go and draw you a bath and you can relax for a bit. After that, we can go into the nursery and I’ll finish building the crib, while you boss me around like you usually do. And tomorrow evening, I can scrub the floor, while you clean the toys. Would that be acceptable? I know you would prefer to do it by yourself, but…”

“No, that would be okay, I trust you,” she says, cutting him off and she receives a warm smile in answer. “Also, I never boss you around.”

Oliver just looks at her in silence, and Felicity relents after a minute.

“Okay, I guess I do boss you around sometimes. There’s only one flaw with your plan though. I don’t think the bath idea is going to be possible, since it’ll be difficult to get in and out of the tub anyway,” she explains, and laughs when Oliver side-eyes her.

“Felicity, I just found you kneeling on all fours in the middle of our living room while being 8 months pregnant. Somehow, I don’t think getting in and out of a bath tub should be a problem,” he says with an amused smile.

He stands up and reaches his hands down to help Felicity stand back up with him by pulling her up. Once they are both standing in front of each other, Oliver cups her face in his hands and kisses her gently.

“Plus, even if you are 8 month pregnant, don’t think for a second that I’m not able to carry you and our child around if I want to,” he says, before reaching down to put his arms around her back and under her knees and lifting her up.

Felicity laughs and puts both of her arms around his neck, before she presses a loving kiss to the side of his throat, the only part of his body she can reach while he carries her bridal style towards the bathroom.

 

* * *

 

_**9th month:** _

Felicity makes her way to the fridge groaning at how unpractical walking has become. If she wasn’t craving strawberries and _tuna_ of all things, she wouldn’t have made the effort to even get up from the couch where she was comfortably seated and engrossed in her TV show. But right now, these two aliments together are all she can think of, which has been happening for a few weeks now, and she can’t imagine not having them right this second.

She opens the fridge and starts looking around. Internally, she knows that there aren’t any strawberries left the second she notices the empty spot in the fridge, but she forces herself to keep looking just in case. Oliver is freakishly organized when it comes to the kitchen, and every category of food has its place in the fridge. If the strawberries aren’t where they usually are, it means there aren’t any in the house.

She sighs in annoyance and closes the fridge, resting her forehead against it. She has two options, and none of them really seem ideal because in all cases it’ll involve _waiting_. She could drag herself out of the house and to the store to go and buy some herself, but that would involve putting shoes on, a prospect which doesn’t sound all that appealing considering the propensity of her belly right now. Or, she could call Oliver and ask him to drop by the store on his way back from work and bring some home with him.

She thinks for a while and looks down at her bloated stomach which prevents her from even seeing her feet, and the decision is made for her. Nothing would be worth the struggle of putting shoes on by herself right now, not even delicious strawberries.

Taking out her phone, Felicity calls Oliver while walking around the kitchen, and waits impatiently for him to pick up.

Thankfully, she doesn’t have to wait long and Oliver answers a few seconds later.

“Hi Oliver, I’m really sorry to bother you at work, but I was wondering if you could bring something back for me when you come home?” she asks.

“Hi honey, how are you feeling? And you’re never a bother, you know that. Truthfully, your call allowed me to escape a meeting about the finances for next quarter for a little while, so I think I might love you even more now than I did a minute ago,” he says and Felicity smiles at his answer.

“Would you mind dropping by the store on your way back and picking up some strawberries? I’m craving them so badly, I can’t think of anything else! Oh, and could you also...”

Felicity suddenly cuts herself off when she feels a small leak of water running down her legs. Her breath catches in her throat and she instantly looks down at herself to see any evidence of what just happened. Did she just pee herself a little because of the baby pressing on her bladder, or is she actually…

This is too soon, the baby isn’t supposed to be coming for another week or so. Still, she knows that going into labor a week or two before the due date isn’t that uncommon, and maybe the contractions that she’s been having for a while and pegged as Braxton Hicks are actually real contractions… Oh god, she’s been going into labor for hours and she didn’t even realize it.

“Felicity? What else did you need?” Oliver asks, and his voice brings her back to the moment. Right, she was speaking to Oliver on the phone.

“Actually Oliver, we can probably forget about the strawberries. It would however be really helpful if you just dropped whatever you were doing and came to pick me up right now…” she says, her voice shaking with excitement and nervousness at the same time.

“What? Felicity, are you okay? Are you hurt?” he asks, instantly going into worried mode, and Felicity can’t help but smile at her over protective husband.

“I’m fine Oliver. I think, however, that my water just broke, so I probably need to go to the hospital,” she says matter of fact. She hears a loud noise on the other side of the phone.

“What? But that’s not possible! You still have a week and a half until your due date! Don’t move, I’ll be right there!” Oliver screams through the phone, worry becoming more prominent and obviously rushing to get to her.

“Oliver, I promise I’m fine, it doesn’t even hurt that much so far. Which I know, is about to change in a little bit and god, I did not miss that part…” she says, before she cuts herself off.

Reminding Oliver of the excruciating pain she’s probably about to go through is probably not the best way to calm him down right now.

“I’ll be right there, don’t move!” Oliver says, before the call ends.

Felicity looks down at the phone and puts it back into her pocket with a small sigh. There’s probably not anything she can do that will help Oliver calm down right now anyway.

\-------

A few hours later, Felicity is pacing in the hospital, waiting for her cervix to be more dilated. When she gave birth to Chloe, she had a cesarean due to the complications and once she went into labor, they delivered the baby fairly quickly.

Oh how she wishes it could happen that way right now. Of course, she’s glad that she’s having a natural delivery, because it means that everything is fine with the baby’s health and her own. But she did not miss anything by not having to wait hours in pain, while her body prepared itself to be ready to deliver.

“You called my mom right?” she suddenly asks.

“Her and Lance will pick up Chloe from pre-school and keep her occpied for a while. They might drop by later so they can say hi, but I told them to come later on. We’ll probably be there for a while.”

Felicity resumes her pacing and she can feel Oliver’s eyes following her movement.

“Can I do anything to help?” asks Oliver, coming to stand next to her.

Felicity looks up at him and she sees the worry etched on his face. The sight of him that way pulls her out of her own pain for a moment and she makes her way closer to him to cup his face with her hands. His hands instantly make their way around her body and he rests them on her lower back, massaging it a little to try and help with the pain, which she appreciates very much.

“Oliver baby, I know you’re worried, but you have no reason to be. You heard the doctor, it’s perfectly okay for labor to come a little before or after the due date. It just means that this little one is impatient to meet us,” she says, caressing his face and trying to reassure him.

Oliver sighs and drops his forehead on hers.

“I know, it’s just, I don’t like it… Not being able to do anything to help while you’re in pain,” he says softly and Felicity feels her heart swell in her chest. Oliver Queen, always taking the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Another contraction hits Felicity, and she grits her teeth and bends forward, trying to ease the pain she is feeling. Oliver puts his hands on her shoulder and holds her to him, trying to support her as best as he can.

“We might be there for another couple hours until I can finally deliver this baby, how about you distract me?” Felicity asks, taking hold of Oliver’s hands and lifting herself back up.

“Well, I would love to Mrs. Queen but I fear my usual ways of distracting you might be a little complicated right now…” he answers with a smug smile, and Felicity can’t help but laugh.

She doesn’t think she’ll ever get over how Oliver can be the sweetest one minute, and then be the flirty playboy he once was the next. Playboy millionaire, vigilante, mayor, loving father, perfect husband… All of these are facets of Oliver’s personality, and Felicity loves every single one of them.

“I wasn’t referring to _that_. In fact, that is the exact reason I need distracting right now. Maybe you could just… tell me a story?” she says, hitting him gently on the shoulder when he laughs at her.

“A story? What do you want to hear?” he asks curiously, pecking her gently on the lips.

“I don’t know, everything, anything. You pick, just… Please distract me so that I don’t have to think of the baby trying to make its way out of my vagina right now,” she says, and she sees Oliver wince slightly, unable to hide it completely.

She glares and he laughs softly.

“Okay… I never told you about the day we first met,” he says while she resumes her pacing in the corridor.

Felicity stops in her steps and turns around to look at Oliver with surprise.

“Well, I know the story. I was there,” she says, not understanding where he is coming from. “You came to my office with the most ridiculous cover story for your computer riddled with bullet holes. Even when you were obviously lying to me, I couldn’t help but feel connected to you almost instantly… Plus, you were incredibly hot, which helped a lot with me helping you, I won’t lie.”

Oliver laughs softly, obviously remembering that day, before he shakes his head softly.

“Actually, that may have been the first time you met me, but it wasn’t the first time I met you…” he says mysteriously.

Felicity looks at him and frowns softly, trying to remember another instance where she could have met Oliver before that moment. After a few moments, she comes up empty and just looks at him, waiting for him to elaborate.

“About two years after the Gambit accident, I came back to Starling City,” he says, and Felicity looks at him sharply, not quite believing what she is hearing.

In all the years they’ve been together, Oliver has never mentioned that, and she’s always been sure that Oliver hadn’t stepped foot in Starling City in five years when he came back. Still, she knows that Oliver hasn’t told her everything about what happened to him on the island.

They’ve been together for years, and she knows that Oliver trusts her more than anyone. He’s opened up to her about a lot of stuff, but they are still some things which are too painful for him to share, and she would never force him to tell her.

She knows that since the incident with William, Oliver doesn’t lie to her about what is going on in his life anymore, and that he would never hide something like this from her again. Still, that doesn’t mean he has to tell her everything that happened to him in the past, she wouldn’t want him to have to relive all of that anyway.

“I never mentioned it because I don’t like to think about Hong Kong too much and…” he starts to say, but Felicity cuts him off.

“It’s okay Oliver, you don’t have to explain yourself. Just tell me what you want to tell me, like how you met me for instance? Because I am very curious about that,” she says and Oliver smiles gratefully at her.

“Well, it’s a long story which involves Amanda Waller, so you can only imagine how complicated it is,” he says, and when Felicity nods, he continues the story. “I needed to get a file in Queen Consolidated, and when I looked onto my father’s computer, I found an audio file that was addressed to me, so I copied in onto the flash drive to listen to it later. I was just done with the copying, but before I had the time to get out of there, a pretty blond woman entered the room and I had to hide so I wouldn’t be seen.”

“Me?” asks Felicity curiously, and Oliver nods in answer before continuing his story.

“You were working late, and I don’t remember exactly what you were doing in the office, dropping off a file or something I think. But that’s not what’s important. You saw a photo of me and my father that was on the desk, and you said I was cute, before you started babbling to yourself about how it was too bad I was dead.”

Felicity drops her head in embarrassment and covers her face with her hands.

“Oh god, I was embarrassing myself in front of you before we even knew each other,” she whines, before she feels Oliver’s hands cup her face and lift it up to look at her in the eyes.

“No, you don’t get it,” he says, smiling softly at her. “Seeing you in that office… You made me smile for the first time in a really long time. I was not in a good place at that time. I had gone through hell. I had just discovered that Thea was doing drugs. I was lost, hurt and confused, and seeing you? This woman I had never met before, and who was talking to herself? You just… You saved me. You gave me my first moment of joy in a while and I didn’t even know your name. You were my light in the darkness like you have been even since I officially met you the second time around. Even then, you had this effect on me… I just, I can’t explain it exactly, I don’t have the words. But… you are one of the few good memories I have from my time away. The woman that made me smile after so long, and you’ll never know what that meant to me.”

Felicity looks up at Oliver and she feels silent tears that have nothing to do with the pain of her contractions running down her cheeks. She knows that Oliver went through hell on that island, and hearing him say that he remembers her as being a source of happiness for him, even for a short moment, it means the world to her. It means everything that she was able to help him, even for a few minutes.

“You were my light and joy before you even met me Felicity Queen,” he says, dropping his forehead against hers, his hands still cupping her cheeks. “You make me happy every day, and you’re about to bring me even more joy by bringing another person in our family.”

Felicity pushes forward and she kisses Oliver deeply, putting her hands over his on her cheeks. A few minutes later, she pulls back from him and takes his hands in hers, holding them between their bodies.

“I love you so much,” she says, and the blinding smile Oliver gives her in answer gives her so much strength. She might be in pain right now, and she knows that the following hours are going to be hell, but it will all be worth it.

Not only will they get to meet their son, but she’d do anything to make Oliver smile that way at her. She’ll go through all the pain in the world if it brings this man a little bit of the happiness he deserves.

\-------

Felicity is lying in a hospital bed while she waits to finally be able to give birth. Walking around has become too painful now that the contractions are coming closer to each other, so she has no choice but to lay there and wait patiently for her cervix to dilate just one centimeter more, which she really hopes will happen soon.

Oliver is sitting next to her on a chair and holding her hand in both of his, massaging it softly while he talks to try and get her mind off of things.

Suddenly, their conversation is broken off when the door to the room enters and Donna, Quentin and Chloe — who is currently perched into Quentin’s arms — make their way into the room smiling at her.

“The doctor said we could come and see you before you went into labor. How are you feeling baby?” asks Donna, making her way to Felicity’s bed and kissing her on the cheek.

From the corner of her eyes, she can see Chloe lifting her arms towards Oliver until he takes her into his and sits her on his lap, while Lance stays standing next to his chair and smiles softly at Felicity.

“I’m okay, contractions are coming closer and closer, which is a good sign I think,” Felicity says.

“Is the baby here yet? Do I have a little sister?” asks Chloe bouncing on Oliver’s lap.

“Or little brother,” he says smiling down at her. “And not yet Chloe, it’s going to be a little while longer.”

“However, they should be here soon,” Felicity starts to say, before cutting herself off when another contraction that makes her wince in pain hits her.

She pushes forward on the bed holding her tummy, and she feels Donna push her hair out of her sweaty forehead while Oliver gets up from his chair to massage her lower back with one of his hands, while holding Chloe up into his arms with the other.

A few seconds later, the contraction stops and Felicity falls back against the back of the bed, a little breathless because of the pain.

“Mama, are you hurt?” Chloe asks with a worried look on her face, and Felicity smiles at her reassuringly.

“It hurts a little bit honey, but it’s okay,” she says softly, but Chloe frowns before looking down at her mother’s stomach.

“Stop hurting Mommy,” she tells her tummy sternly, and all the adults in the room smile softly at the little girl being so protective of her mother.

“It’s not the baby’s fault princess,” says Oliver looking at Chloe. “The baby has to hurt Mommy a little so he or she can come out and meet all of us, but they don’t mean to.”

Chloe looks at Oliver for a few second, trying to gauge the truth in his words, before she turns towards Felicity as if to confirm her father’s words are true. Felicity simply nods and smiles in answer, which has Chloe nodding decidedly, as if she understands exactly what is going on even though she probably has no idea.

She tries to reach forward to Felicity and Oliver sits her down on the bed next to Felicity, while still holding her by the tummy so she won’t fall and hurt herself.

A few minute later, a doctor enters the room and tells them that he has to check if Felicity is ready yet, so everyone but Oliver has to make their way out of the room.

Donna looks at Chloe and smiles softly at her.

“We have to go my little princess,” she says softly and Chloe looks at her briefly, before she pushes forward and presses a kiss to her mother’s tummy.

“See you soon baby, try not to hurt mommy too much,” she says before she allows Quentin to lift her back into his arms and waves goodbye at her parents while Quentin and Donna make their way out of the room.

Once they have left, Felicity sees the doctor smile softly towards the door, before preparing the instrument he needs to see if she’s really to deliver yet or not. She turns towards Oliver and smiles lovingly.

“We did pretty good the first time around didn’t we?” she asks softly, and Oliver smiles in answer before pecking her on the lips.

“We did great. Chloe is amazing, and this little one will be too,” he says before pecking her once again and pulling back to let the doctor do his job.

\------

Felicity is lying in her hospital bed after having spent the last couple hours giving birth to their son. She feels exhausted, but when she turns her head around and sees him lying in Oliver’s arms, a joy deeper than she has felt in a while grows inside of her.

Oliver has barely been able to keep his eyes away from him for the last hour since the doctor came and laid their son in Felicity’s waiting arms, mesmerized by the sight of this tiny person.

He looks up towards her and gets up quietly from his chair, still holding their son in his arms. He bends forward to press a loving kiss on her forehead and her lips, kissing the radiant smile on her face away.

“You did so good babe,” he says with a huge smile and Felicity smiles back at him in answer.

“We did good,” she corrects him. “We make a pretty good pair Mr. Queen. We should probably stay together, since we make such beautiful babies and everything,”

“We really should,” he simply answers, and kisses her again.

A few minutes later, Donna, Lance, Thea, Roy, Diggle and Chloe make their way into the bedroom, and Felicity looks sleepily towards them.

“Oh my god baby, he’s so beautiful!” gushes Donna as soon as she sees the baby laying in Oliver’s arms.

The little boy is lying quietly, although he isn’t asleep. His baby blue eyes are wide open, and a very thin layer of blond hair are laying on his head. Donna peeks over Oliver’s shoulder and brings down a finger to caress the baby’s chubby cheek softly.

All of their friends and family gush about the baby and congratulate Oliver and Felicity, and Oliver gives the baby back to Felicity while all of them crowd around the bed to look at him.

Chloe, who was holding Roy’s hand when they entered the room lets go of it and makes her way closer to the bed as well, pulling on Oliver’s pant leg. He bends down and takes her into his arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead before she sits her down on the bed next to Felicity so she’ll be able to see her mother and the baby lying in her arms.

“Don’t touch Mommy’s stomach okay baby girl? It might still be a little sore,” Oliver explains, and Chloe nods in answer, before pushing forward to take a better look at the baby.

“What’s wrong with him? Why he look like an old person?” she asks, which has everyone in the room laughing.

“He just came out of Mommy’s tummy, so he’s still a little wrinkly right now,” explains Felicity, smiling towards Chloe while Oliver just looks at all three of them with love shining in his eyes.

“He’s perfect,” he simply says and the others look at him with a knowing look.

Chloe looks towards Oliver doubtfully, and after a few seconds she just shrugs before carefully bending forward and pressing a kiss to the now sleeping baby’s forehead.

“It’s okay if you a little ugly, I still love you,” she says, which has Donna and Thea cooing while the rest of them laugh softly at Chloe’s antics.

“He’s really beautiful, he clearly takes after his mother,” says Lance, smiling teasingly towards Oliver. “What is the little guy’s name? The nurse didn’t tell us that.”

Felicity presses a kiss to the baby’s forehead, before she lifts her face up to look at all of them and smiles.

“Everyone, let me introduce Nathan John Queen,” she says with a loving smile, and she hears a surprised gasp coming from her left.

She turns her face around and she sees John look at the baby with tears in his eyes and an astonished look, a sight that is so rare that Felicity feels her own eyes get mushy.

“John?” he asks softly, and Oliver smiles towards him in answer, before pressing a hand on his shoulder from where he is standing next to him.

“You’ve always been here for us, since the very beginning. And you’ve been so patient with us and helped us through all our relationship drama. We figured it made sense for Nathan to be named after the man that played such an important part in his parents getting and staying together throughout the years,” he explains.

“Plus, now Nathan is surely going to become an incredible man. If he ever wonders what the right thing to do is, he’ll just have to look up to his father, grandfather, namesake and godfather to figure it out. Oh god… he’s bound to develop the biggest hero complex ever. I regret all of my choices right now,” Felicity continues, and she sees Oliver look at her with an amused and loving look in his eyes, while Diggle smiles goofily and Lance tries to hide how pleased he is at being called Nathan’s grandfather.

“And he have the BEST big sister!” says Chloe excitedly, and Oliver bends forward to hug her to his chest from where she is still sitting on the bed while Felicity smiles towards them.

“Of course, he’ll always have the best big sister to help him through life,” she says.

“Man, Diggle. You’re going to have tough shoes to fill in. Now, you’re not only the godfather but the kid is named after you, you better do a banging job at being there for him!” teases Roy, and he laughs while Thea looks at him with a fond smile, already knowing what is coming next.

“Actually Roy”, Felicity starts looking towards him. “We were hoping you would be Nathan’s godfather, if you’ll accept.”

Roy’s mouth opens in shock and he looks at them astonished, not saying anything for about a minute, and trying to reign his emotions back in. Felicity smiles towards him and looks at him knowingly.

“What do you say? Wanna hold your godson?” she asks, and Thea pushes Roy forward a bit, before she smiles when he reaches forward and cradles him into his arms, although he looks terrified at the idea of holding the baby.

Oliver frowns slightly, and pulls Roy towards the chair, forcing him to sit down and Felicity laughs softly at him already acting like the overprotective father he is not five hours after Nathan’s birth. He positions Roy’s hands so that he is supporting Nathan’s head correctly and only once satisfied that his son is securely held, does he pull back slightly.

He reaches for Chloe and pulls her into his arms, walking closer to Roy so that she can continue pearing curiously at her little brother, oblivious to all the emotional conversations that have just happened around her. Felicity knows that Oliver would trust Roy with his life, but that his overprotectiveness over his family is flaring right now. She won’t lie, she loves him even more because of it.

After a few minutes of silence and all of them just staring at Nathan sleeping in Roy arms, Chloe sighs and turns towards Oliver, whispering very loudly in his ear.

“Daddy, when will he do something interesting?” she asks, which has everyone in the room laughing one again while Oliver turns to her and presses a kiss to her cheek with a huge smile on his face.

Felicity looks around her, and she feels the love she has for all of these people increase tenfold. Her mother is nestled into Lance’s arms, and they are both looking at Nathan with adoring eyes. Diggle is filming everything with his phone, and Felicity guesses it’s so that he’ll be able to show it to Lyla, who had surely stayed home to watch after Sara and John Jr. She smiles at his thoughtfulness, before turning around to continue looking at the people in the room with her.

Thea is looking at Roy holding Nathan with such a loving and wanting look, that Felicity wouldn’t be surprised if they were the ones to announce they are expecting fairly soon. Roy himself, is still entranced by Nathan and he can’t stop staring at the baby with a look of wonder.

Finally, her eyes fall on Chloe, who is still looking at her brother, before they make their way up to Oliver’s face. She notices that he is looking at her and she smiles at him. The private smile Oliver gives her in answer takes her breath away, and she feels tears well in her eyes.

This is her home, her family, and she couldn’t love them anymore.

 


End file.
